I'll Do Anything
by Acara Whitefox
Summary: It was normal to see Temari cooking breakfast in an oversized t-shirt. It was normal to see Kankuro raiding the fridge for something to eat. This was how it was supposed to be, and Gaara would do anything to make sure it would stay this way...this time.
1. A Path to Destruction

**!!PLEASE READ!!**

**Um...hi. Anyways, this new story is a time travel one. I know, it's been done before, but I have yet to see one exactly like this one. This story will be mostly in Gaara POV, though we will get the occasional input from other people as well.**

**I should warn you all before I start of a couple things:**

**(1) Pairing of a few people are going to change from the ones that are shown at the begining of the story. So just look out, ok.**

**(2) There are going to be OCs. Lots of OCs. This is because this story takes place (for the most part) in Suna. Along with that, there are going to be arcs that are not showed in canon for a similer reason. **

**(3) Gaara is going to have an OC personality. This is because he's spent close to seven years in the company of Naruto and the crew.**

**If you do not like these things, the Back Button is on the top left corner of your screen. Please do not tell me about how much you hate OCs that play main rolls in stories and that many of the characters are out of character. I haven't gotten a review like that before, but I hear that some authors have. You've been warned.**

**Ok, I believe that I've been talking way to much and need to get on with the show. So here we are!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did, most likely, Naruto would be female.**

* * *

_I'll do anything_

_Just to hold you in my arms_

_Try to make you laugh_

_I just can't put you in the past_

**A Path to Destruction**

People say that before you die your entire life flashes before your eyes. Every moment, every instance of loss and gain, of happiness and sorrow, is relieved in a few seconds. It gives people a time to reminisce, to see the wrongs that they have committed, to see their friends and family that are long-gone, once more, and to give them more reason to fight.

For the third time in his life, Sabaku no Gaara's life flashed before him.

He was three when he first saw his brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari (though at the time, they were Kankru and Temi). They smiled, played games, and laughed together. For a time, the three were a family. And then his father took them away. And once again, Gaara was alone.

He was six when he learned what love was. Yashamaru, his uncle, explained to him that it was a powerful source that drove people to protect each other and made them the strongest that they could be.

Gaara was six when his uncle tried to kill him, sending him over the edge, and spiraling into madness.

Not that he blamed Yashamaru, anyways. From the notes that he had read, written in his uncle's almost loopy kanji, the man really did love him at one point. It was his father, the Yondiame Kazekage, that drove him to do what he did that moonlit night, planting seeds of destruction until Yashamaru couldn't see left from right.

Gaara was twelve when his life flashed before him for the first time.

It wasn't how he had originally imagined it. The red head had imagined that if that day was to come, where he was defeated, he would have taken an attack full blast and destroyed, his image wiped off the earth in less than a second.

But it wasn't. Gaara life flashed as Uzumaki Naruto crawled towards him on the forest floor and told him that he was going to die.

And for once, Gaara believe him.

After that, the Shukaku jinchuuriki attempted to change his image. He tried to make bonds, tried to be good person, and tried to be human for once in his life.

And it paid of, for when he was fifteen, Sabaku no Gaara was offered the position as Kazekage.

He was sixteen when Deidara of Akatsuki kidnapped him. The extraction process was horrible, simply indescribably horrible, and it when on for three days. Luckily, Chiyo and the Konoha ninja that were sent to get him back arrived just in time to stop them from extracting Shukaku from his body. And he had to lie there, completely exhausted, as he watched Chiyo – the woman who was his curse, who stuck Shukaku inside him, who he had wanted to kill so badly all of his life – as she strengthened the seal with the last of he chakra, and die with a smile on her face.

It was after that that Gaara realized that the near extraction had not only weakened him, but Shukaku as well. When he saw the demon in his mind, his heart nearly broke. Even though the Ichibi was the bane of his existence, Gaara had always believed the bijuu to be strong and mighty. The thing before him was small and weak and barely able to hold it's form together. The kage knelt before Shukaku and gave him the remaining bit of his chakra, hoping that he could nurse the bijuu back to health.

He was sixteen when he enters a partnership with Shukaku.

Surprisingly enough, this was not the second time that his life flashed before his eyes, simply because he had excepted the fact that he was going to die.

He was sixteen when Pein of Akatsuki attacked Konoha. Though the young Kazekage was not there for the battle, the reports he had received said enough. Tsuande had battled Konan, the partner of the Red Dawn Leader. The blue haired woman had been killed, but the fight had left the Hokage with some very nasty wounds that even she couldn't recover from. Along with that, every single ninja he had known (along with a few others) had ganged up on Pein. God he may have been, the orange haired man was simply too out numbered to fight and had to retreat. He had already lost three of his six bodies.

Konoha was not without it's losses as well. On top of an injured Tsuande, there were several civilian causalities, along with the deaths of three very important people to the self-proclaimed Konoha 12. Sharingan no Kakashi, Maito Gai, and the ROOT ninja known only as Sai had had their names carved on the memorial stone by the end of the day.

Gaara had been nineteen when his brother and sister died.

They had not gone out in an epic battle between good and evil, nor in a small, damp dungeon after a failed undercover mission. They were killed by Kabuto, the second and last leader of Otogakure, because they were the brother and sister of the Kazekage. The medic-nin had hung their corpses on either side of his statue in the council chamber room and wrote a message in their blood.

"Welcome to Hell, Kazekage-sama."

He was nineteen when he declared war on Oto, and he was nineteen when the Godaime Hokage died, the wounds from her battle with Konan finally catching up to her.

She had called Naruto to her hospital room that day, weak and frail as – one by one – her organs shut down.

The blonde woman told his fellow jinchuuriki that he was going to be the next Hokage. She told him that she loves him, and will always love him.

When Tsuande calls Naruto her baby brother, he begins to cry, telling her that everything was going to be alright, that they could heal her, that they could-

But they couldn't, so Naruto spilled empty promises in a desperate attempt not to loose his baa-chan.

And then Tsuande told him about his parents. About the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and his wife, Princess Uzumaki Kushina of Whirlpool Country.

She tells Naruto that they would be so proud of him.

Tsuande's last words are not address to Naruto nor the village (unlike the former four Hokage's), but to someone that had been dead for close to three years.

"Jiraiya, you old pervert, I love you. And I am coming."

The Rokudaime Hokage, Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, becomes the third and final person to see Tsuande without her genjutsu. Before telling the ANBU outside that the Godaime Hokage is dead, he reapplies it.

Gaara was nineteen when he watched as his best friend achieved his dream. And he was there when Naruto disappeared two weeks later.

To his surprise, Naruto had not been kidnapped by the Akatsuki or any organization. The blonde had left at his own accord, and came back five days later, carrying a blind, weak, and tired Uchiha Itachi on his back. The eldest Uchiha was to be reinstated as a ninja and the truth about the Uchiha Massacre be revealed.

No one asked the new Hokage where he found Itachi, but when asked why he brought him back, Naruto said, "That I feel a storm coming, and we are going to need all the help we can get."

Itachi became the first ninja in history to use a chakra pulses to see. He was given the position of right-hand man to Naruto, the to whom he swore to protect with the life that the blonde had given him.

Gaara was twenty when he avenged his siblings deaths.

It was a last gasp attempt made by Oto to finish the war that they had started. An all out attack on Suna, ever man armed to the teeth with weapons and mutated forms of the cursed seal. It was there that the Nidaime Otokage met his match, and it was one of the messiest that Gaara had caused in years.

After the death of Kabuto, the Oto nin where sent into disarray without a leader to guide them. Baki, Gaara's former sensei, adviser, and father-figure, told the Suna ninja to attack them, but Gaara held him back, telling them to retreat behind the walls. The older man looked ready to argue when he saw the look in the younger boy's eyes; a look that should have died after the red head fought Uzumaki Naruto of the Leaf in that failed invasion so long ago.

Gaara came back to Suna two days later covered in blood. He waved off medic-nins, mumbling about how it wasn't his, before turning to his sensei.

"Oto is no more."

No one asked about what had happened, but needless to say, his fan club lost about half of it's members that day.

Gaara was twenty when Akatsuki and Team Hawk perished in the streets of Konoha.

The battle was (according to the reports) short, swift, and bloody as the attacking force didn't stand a chance. The first to go was Hoshigaki Kisame, who was taken down by the combined forces to Shino, Gemna, Iruka, and Raido. After him were Karen and Suigetsu, who fell to Team 10's superior teamwork. It was supposed to have been something out of a cheesy romance movie, as Suigetsu had confessed his love to Karen right before they died. Jugo was brought down by Hinata and Kiba, a battle that gave the young Hyuuga her confidence and the Inuzuka some humility.

It was the battle between the members of Team 7, the Neo Sanin as they called them now, that was the most devastating. Everything from snake summons to insane strength to the occasional Futon: Rasengan was seen. But in the end, when the three were running low on chakra, Sasuke admitted defeat in an attempt to bring Naruto close enough to kill him. The blonde Hokage is able to embrace his best friend one last time before the younger Uchiha plunges Chidori into his heart.

At this point, Sakura looses it and blows off her former crushes head with her inhuman strength.

Gaara is twenty when the Kyuubi enters a partnership with Naruto, and in a desperate attempt to keep the blond boy alive, give him the power of instant regeneration.

Pein, on the other hand, fights Itachi who (after Katoning Zetsu out of existence) is able to trick the leader of Akatsuki into revealing his true body. The former missing-nin deals a lethal blow to the body of the one known as Nagato, and as the man lies dying, he called out to the masked man who was sitting in the tree branches watching. Pein asks Madara to help him, to finish off the village of Konoha, but the eldest Uchiha shakes his head. He spoke to Pein in the voice of a child who had died so long ago, telling the orange haired man that he was a peace loving fool, one who had served his purpose.

Pein, realizing he had been tricked, called Itachi to him. He gives the blind Uchiha a scroll, telling him to only use it as a last resort before dying.

The Akatsuki Leader's last words are, "Itachi…time travel…"

Gaara was twenty two when his life flashed before him a second time. He was twenty two when Suna – his village, his everything – was destroyed by the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, controlled by Uchiha Madara.

The attack came without warning of any kind, as a faint buzzing sound before a purple fog rolled over the cliffs that surrounded the village. Everyone was killed, everyone but him. Konoha teams found him three days later, lying next to the gravestones of his siblings, kept alive only by Shukaku's chakra.

It took Sakura four months to flush the toxins from his system.

Gaara was twenty two when he was instated as a Konoha ninja, though he kept his Kazekage title.

The first thing that he did was track down Rock Lee, now a jonin and a little quieter after the death of Gai, to teach him the basics of taijutsu. The red head took what he learned from the spandex wearing man and created his own still, something which combined inhuman flexibility and speed. On top of that, he developed a move based off of the Yondaime's and Rokudaime's Hiraishin no Jutsu. He called it Shunpo.

Gaara was twenty five when Naruto asked him to take over Jiraiya's position as Konoha's Spymaster. The red head agreed whole heartedly and almost immediately formed a spy network under the alias of Kage. The network was known about across the elemental nations, especially after a woman named Kaze began to show up. No ever expected that Kaze, a red headed flirt of a woman, was really Sabaku no Gaara in disguise.

He was twenty five Konoha entered an era of prosperity, as missions began to come in faster than before. Haruno Sakura became Namikaze Sakura after Naruto proposed to her, and within half a year there was news that the couple was expecting a child.

Gaara was twenty five when Sakura asked him to be the god father. The red head had never been so proud in his life.

But after a while, the Kazekage (as people still called him) began to notice something. A few things actually. The first thing that he noticed was that he was absolutely addicted to coffee and cookies. Along with that, he had developed a sense of humor, and began acting a lot like most of the people around him. But the third thing caught him off guard and made him feel almost disgusted with himself. He noticed it as Sakura was in labour, and her screams of pain echoed through the white washed, monotone hallways of the hospital.

He was in love with his best friend's wife and Head Medic, Namikaze Sakura.

Gaara was twenty nine when Madara began to systematically unleash bijuu on the Hidden Villages.

Iwagakure and Takigakure were burned to the ground by the blue and black flames of the Nibi no Bakeneko.

The citizens of Kirigakure and Yukigakure drowned as the Sanbi no Kyodaigame unleashed its fury upon them.

Kumogakure and Soragakure perished beneath the strength of the Hachibi no Kyogyu.

Amegakure and Hoshigakure were buried beneath molten lave and rock by the Yonbi no Saru.

The people of Yugakure and Getsugakure died from their blood boiling in their veins from the steam power of the Gobi no Irukauma.

The citizens of Kusagakure and Takumi Village chocked to death on the soap bubbles from the Rokubi no Namekuji.

Gaara was part of the rescue efforts made by Konoha to find survivors. All of the teams failed, as their were none.

Gaara was thirty when his life flashed before him for a third and final time. He along with Itachi, Naruto, Sakura, and behind her their daughter, stood on the Hokage tower gazing at the hell that was brought onto them by a mad Uchiha on a revenge streak.

Seven bijuu stood at the gates, infinitely high amounts of yokai pouring from them. Madara, his mask off, showing off the face of an Uchiha boy that should have died in the Third Ninja War, stood proudly on the top of the Hachibi no Kyogyu.

"Survive this, Konoha!"

Gaara summed up their predicament in two simple words:

"Holy shit…"

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**Ok, chapter over. Sorry to leave you on a cliffhagger but it was needed. No, we're not going ot see what happened during the bijuu fight of doom, merely the after effects. And their not pretty.**

**If you've got any questions about the time line, feel free to ask.**

**EDIT: This is the updated version with the cannon bijuu.**

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	2. Chapter 1: Will of Fire

**Hello again.**

**I'd like to thank the 2 people that reviewed for the prologue. VFR6 and j7nX, this chapter goes out to you.**

**Please review. I'll give you cookies, though you might have to fight Gaara for them. I hear he's addicted.**

**Diclaimer: I do not own Naruto. That belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. Though I did dress up as Deidara for Halloween!**

* * *

**Will of Fire**

The official definition of the word 'survivor' is 'to carry on despite hardships or trauma, to persevere.' On a report, survivors are those people who are found by search teams sent by their home and allied villages. On a report, the four of them would have been survivors.

But to them, there were none. Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, Namikaze Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Itachi, and Sabaku no Gaara were as dead to the world as any of their friends and family.

Gaara knelt before a small wooden cross, his hand resting on the name that he had carved only a few minutes ago. His fellow tactician, Nara Shikamaru, was buried there.

The lazy-ass jonin was one of the many people who had died that day; an explosion caused by the Nekomata had blown off his legs. Unlike the other men who this had happened to, Shikamaru had not prayed for God to save him, nor did he cry for his mother. The shadow-user cried for Temari, his lover who had been dead for eleven years, because she was going to hit him over the head with her fan for coming to see her so soon.

Gaara's gaze drifted to the left, where he saw a figure limp towards him. Itachi came into view, a make shift crutch supporting his wait. It had been his idea to release the genjutsu that Madara had placed on the bijuu. The demons may have been bloodthirsty and cruel, but they had a Code of Honor, as they turned on the mad man who had controlled them and killed him. The last Uchiha had lost his left leg in the final battle and would most likely never be able to be a shinobi again.

"**None of us will ever be able to fight again."** Shukaku's voice, saddened by the idiotic loss of life, rang in his head. The bijuu had learned to appreciate humans more than he had before after the two of them became partners. Gaara had taught him about being human, while the Ichibi gave him a large portion of his power, trusting the red head to use it well.

"Naruto's calling us," Itachi said.

Gaara gave him an affirmative grunt and winced as he rose to his feet. The explosion that had killed Shikamaru had superheated his Suna no Yoroi and turning it into glass. While he was now able to control glass like he did sand, it had exploded the moment he had moved towards his fallen comrades. It was a miracle that he could still move his arms. He had reluctantly ripped off the sleeves of his treasured trench coat to make a make shift bandage before running off in search of Naruto.

As Gaara and Itachi moved slowly towards the Hokage and his wife, they passed hundreds of thousands of wooden crosses, under them, shinobi, civilians, and children alike. In there, somewhere, was Team 8, pinned together in death by stray shrapnel. Someplace to their left were Ino and Chouji, who had been stepped on by the Gobi. And in front of them, Neji, Tenten, and Lee, burned to a crisp by the Yonbi.

It looked somewhat like something he had read in a story book as a child, a field in the mythical land of Belgium. Flanders, he believed it was called.

And then before them was Naruto and Sakura, holding each other as they cried shamelessly. Naruto was untouched by the attack that had taken place only three days ago; the Kyuubi had healed his most grievous wounds by now. His wife, on the other hand, had second and third degree burns on half of her face. She had been in the same area as Team Gai when they had perished.

Gaara still thought that the pink haired woman was beautiful, even with the horrid burns that she now had.

The Kazekage turned his head to the wooden marker in front of them. Tears threatened to fall as he read the name.

_Namikaze Kushina_. Her body had been so mangled and bloody that they had only identified her by the silver bracelet that her parents had given her for her birthday last year.

She had been five years old.

"So what do we do now?" Gaara whispered in a voice so blank and dead; like it had been in those chuunin exams all those years ago.

Naruto lifted his head, "What can we do? There's nothing out there. No people, no land, no fucking _anything_!"

"We can live in the Outer Rim," Sakura suggested, "Maybe there's someone there that can take us in."

Gaara shuddered at the idea. The Outer Rim referred to the territory outside the Elemental Countries, where cannibals, murderers, and thieves roamed free with no government and laws to protect those who lived there. It was survival of the fittest. No one lasted out there for long.

The couple stood, gazing with grief stricken eyes at the grave of their child. The red head felt their pain because they had been forced to do something that no parent should have had to do. They had to bury their own child.

"There is something," Itachi's voice rang out. The three turned towards him, the world's final reminder of a clan that had fallen into darkness.

"Pein, he gave me a scroll. Told me to use it as a last resort."

Their eyes widened, and a glimpse of hope was seen in their dead eyes.

"I asked Neji to read it over for me. Most of it's theory, but if the jutsu works, we should be able to save everyone."

"What is it, Itachi?" Naruto asked, a trace of what was jokingly called 'Hokage Mode' apparent in his voice.

"It's a time traveling jutsu," the Uchiha explained, "Pein created it. He never really trusted Madara to hold out on their deal. He invented this in case something were to go wrong."

"And something did," the Hokage muttered as Itachi fished out the scroll from under his ANBU flank jacket, "What are the risks?"

"From what I've understood, the worst case scenario is that we drop dead after we complete the hand seals," his right hand man answered, "Of course, the jutsu might not work, and then we'd in the same position we are now."

Naruto nearly ripped open the scroll as the two other ninja gathered behind him. Itachi stood alone because he may have been able to see using chakra pulses, seeing through glass, water, and what is written on paper was still beyond him.

"What have we got to lose?" asked Sakura.

"Nothing," Gaara answered, "And that's our problem."

The blonde raised an eyebrow, "We're gonna need a plan."

* * *

The four of them sat just outside of what was at one time the Hokage tower. The wind whipped across the barren waste land, kicking up dust and grime.

"The scroll says that we can pick the date that we are going back to if we really concentrate," Naruto said, "We need to pick a date and make a plan because, if you remember, Gaara was a homicidal mass maniac at one point and Itachi was an S-Class missing-nin."

"I think we should go back to the chuunin exams," Sakura suggested, "At least to the beginning, so we can stopped Sasuke from getting the cursed seal."

"No," Gaara objected, "We won't have a heck of a lot of time to prepare for the war. Orochimaru will be on our doorsteps and we need all the time we can get."

"How about the day you two became genin," Itachi said, "That can give us the maximum amount of time for us to actually make an impact on the time stream."

"I'd like that," Naruto said, "I'd like to see if we can save Haku and Zabuza. They might be good allies in the future."

Gaara twitched and rung his hands together, "I'd like that as well. Before the chuunin exams, I went on a mission. It was the only one I ever failed, not because we messed up, but because I killed the client and the other team that went with us. I caused a village to be taken over by Taki nin.

"I'd like to complete that mission."

Sakura's eyes softened and she placed a hand on his arm. The touch set his nerves on fire and made his insides twist upon themselves.

"We can go back to then, Gaara," she gave him a smile and he felt blood rush to his cheeks.

"Thank you."

"Next problem," Naruto announced, "The identification seals. We need to hid them."

The three other ninja nodded. This one was understandable. Every high ranking ninja were given a seal that was attached to their souls incase war was to break out. The seals were created to identify imposters that might want to take information back to enemy countries. They were designed to withstand everything, so traveling through time would not effect the fact that seals would come with them.

"Whether you use sleeves or bandages or both, make sure _no one_ sees them," the Rokudaime ordered.

"Next, we need to make code phrases so that we know that everyone else has arrived," he explained, "For Sakura and I, it will be easy. I'll ask if she wants to sit next to me at the academy, and she will respond yes.

"Itachi, I want you to hold the scroll when we make the jump. That way it will come with you specifically, so you can show it Pein and get out of Akatsuki. Come to Konoha and live in the Yondaime's nose."

Gaara smirked. Naruto's father had build a private training room in his statue's nose. The Rokudaime had found out about it shortly after Tsuande's death.

"Gaara, when you come to Konoha for the exams, I want you to ask for our names instead of Sasuke's. We'll respond about how you already know them."

The three of them nodded.

"Alright," Itachi said, "Neji described something about a large seal having to be drawn, so we need to get that set up."

* * *

The seal itself was massive. Spanning almost 125 feet in every direction, it was a mass of twisting lines and ancient symbols. Shukaku had pointed out that most of the writing was in the language spoken among demons and wondered where the hell Pein had learned them.

Four smaller circles containing four ninja stood in the middle of the giant creation, hands flashing through seals in perfect synchrony. Blue chakra flared around a pink haired woman and a one-legged black haired man. Red chakra blazed around a blonde man with a orange trench coat with black flames. Yellow chakra burst from the red head with the long pony tail.

And then there was a golden flash, and the world went dark.

* * *

It was nearly midnight and Sabaku no Gaara was going to go on the hunt. The full moon was high in the sky and his mother's voice cried out for blood.

He sat on the roof of the Kazekage residence and looked over the streets below. He saw the wall where he had first killed that drunk so long ago. To the left, the swing that he had sat on in his childhood when he had been young and naive.

The clock struck midnight and an intense pain came over his body. Gaara hunched over clutching his stomach.

"_What is this?"_ he asked Shukaku. The bijuu did not respond, as he too was in pain.

Gaara withdrew to his mind and appeared in front of the chains that restrained the demon within him. The sand spirit thrashed against his bonds as the red head stumbled over to him, looking for some sort of explanation. There, to his right, something was forming.

Sand whipped together, forming a second Shukaku. Beside him, a tall man appeared in the storm. His long red hair was tied in a pony tail at the base of his neck. A Konoha flank jacket was covered by a black trench coat with light blue swirls on the bottom and dark blue pants. A Suna head band was tied around his neck.

The man stepped towards him and knelt at his twitching form. Gaara's stomach clenched: the man's face looked like an older version of his own.

"I really am sorry for this," he said, "But I have to save my precious people."

The man reached out and touched his forehead, and then he knew nothing.

The clock showed 12:01 AM. Gaara raised his head and smiled.

"I'm back."

* * *

_I'll do anything_

_Just to fall asleep with you_

_Will you remember me?_

_Because I know I won't forget you._

* * *

**Glossary:**

**Suna no Yoroi:** literally "Armor of Sand"  
Type: No rank, Defensive, Short range (0-5m)  
Users: Gaara  
This jutsu uses chakra to cover the user with a thin, but very dense, layer of protective sand. While a good defense, it puts an unignorable burden on the user's stamina, both through chakra absorption and the fact that the sand makes them heavier and hampers their movement.

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**Ok, for anyone who cares, the four lines at the beginning of the prologue and the end of this chapter are from the song I'll Do Anything by Simple Plan.**

**So if anyone is confused about anything, just ask.**

**I'd also like to apologize for the lack of action in the last chapter of "I am Kyuubi?" I needed to tie up some loose stings before I could move on to the next arc.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**

**EDIT: This is the updated version.**


	3. Chapter 2: Paradox

**Wow, I updated twice in one week. This is almost unheard of...**

**This chapter mainly filler, but is full of shopping, cooking, and wonderous angst! Also, there are some things in here that you might not get if you haven't read my side story to this called "Save You."**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Take that lawyers! I win!**

* * *

**Paradox**

The silver light of the moon bounced off of the mud brick walls, giving the windswept village an almost unearthly glow. The dry breeze kicked up the desert sand and sent it dancing through the night. The occasional lamp from a home or late night business flickered in the darkness.

And Gaara had not seen something so beautiful in almost seven years.

The Sunagakure of his time was all but covered by monstrous sand dune, the relentless desert hiding the remains of one of the greatest shinobi villages to ever grace the Elemental Nations. But here, with the wind in his face and the sand at his feet and the call of the desert, Gaara knew that this was _real_.

He probably would have remained looking at it until dawn broke if not for the stabbing pain in his left arm.

"_Damn,"_ he thought, glancing down at the thin blue ring around his forearm, "_Need to cover that up…"_ The identification seal had apparently come with him.

Manifesting itself as a blue ring (though for Konoha-nin, it had been red), the seal showed that he was indeed the Godaime Kazekage, his official term had started three years in the future, never ending as long as Suna needed him. All he needed to do was focus his chakra into the seal, and it would show his name, position, and the date of his coronation. It was an idea created by the Shodai Tsuchikage during the First Great Shinobi War and was later copied throughout the rest of the Hidden Villages.

A sudden shift in youkai, a semi-violent poke from Shukaku, told him get off his ass and start moving.

"Alright," Gaara wondered aloud, rising to his feet, "I'm the Godiame Kazekage from eighteen or so years in the future. I'm in the body of my twelve year old self. I need to save my village from falling to a madman with an army of bijuu behind him and at the same time make sure that no one gets too suspicious of my sudden change in behavior that they think I'm a spy and kill me.

"Shukaku, where the hell do I start?"

"**Personally brat, I'd get that seal of yours covered up. The last thing we need is people asking questions about it,"** the bijuu answered in his cracking, high-pitched voice, **"Then I'd get some supplies, as your younger self only uses sand. After that, go raid the fridge for something to eat. I'll explain on the way."**

"_Uh…ok,"_ he glanced down at his stomach and was surprised to hear a loud grumble.

"I shouldn't be this hungry," Gaara commented as he made his way inside the Kazekage compound, taking a walk down memory lane while he was at it. He hadn't been living in there since Baki had offered he and his siblings a place to stay has his home, even during his time as Suna's leader.

"**Actually you should,"** Shukaku said, his voice taking on a surprisingly more knowledgeable tone, **"Your body is going into overdrive trying to make up for the extra spiritual chakra in your reserves."**

"_Huh?"_

The bijuu sighed, **"What do you know about chakra?" **Again he was greeted by silence, **"Chakras are the energies that a shinobi requires in order to perform ninjutsu, right?"**

"_Yah,"_ Gaara continued, _"And shinobi draw on them from the cells in their bodies, mixing spiritual and physical energy together to create chakra. But what does this have to do with me being so hungry?"_

"**Think Gaara! What was the only thing that came back with you?"**

"_Well, there's the seal…which is attached to my soul- Oh! I get it now!"_ the red head exclaimed. _"Since spiritual energy comes from my soul that came with me, but physical energy comes from the strength and training, my body now is much weaker than my body from the future and is trying to compensate._

"_So what are the side affects?"_

"**Don't worry; you won't need to stop using chakra or anything. You'll just be hungry and a little light-headed for a week or two. You're lucky you got me here, midget, or you'd have to last a month,"** Shukaku said mockingly.

"_Yah, make fun of the short guy. Just wait till I hit my growth spurt,"_ he stopped in front of a wooden door. If memory served correctly, this was his brother's room.

Quietly placing an ear against the door, Gaara listened for the sound of something – anything – to prove to him that Kankuro was really behind this wooden plank and not in a grave just outside the walls of the village.

What he got was a loud snore.

"You haven't changed a bit, have you brother?" he whispered before turning to the door across the hall. It was his room, though it was barely used and looked more like a guest bedroom that anything else.

It was surprisingly clean compared to the room he had in the Hokage tower when he lived with the Namikaze's. The walls in that room had been covered with sketches of places in Konoha, the desk supported piles of half finished paperwork and coded messages, and the floor had been so covered in dirty clothing that Sakura had to be bribed on several occasions to even go in there.

What? He had not had much of a childhood. He was allowed to be a big kid occasionally.

But now was not the time to reminisce about the life he had had in Konoha. Gaara made a bee line to the closet and started to pull out maroon jumpsuit after maroon jumpsuit in an attempt to find one with long sleeves.

After what seemed like ages, the red head found the one that he had taken to wearing shortly after the Konoha invasion. Pulling it on, he found it to be a little baggy, but it was no large problem.

"Ok, next I need supplies," Gaara mumbled, moving to the loose floorboard beneath the bed and pulled out his money, kept hidden there from his father. Why he even had a bed was unknown, though he found that it was certainly comfortable when he sat on it to count out the money needed to buy what he needed.

Gaara glanced at the clock out of the corner of his eye: Twelve fifteen. He thanked whatever god had blessed him with a photographic memory, remembering that Temari always woke up at seven on the dot every morning to the point were it had gotten creepy.

Using Kage Henge, a technique developed by Naruto shortly after the Neo Sannin was reduced to two members, Gaara gave himself brown hair and eyes. Instead of placing a genjutsu over one's body to give the illusion that it had changed shapes, Kage Henge literally transformed the body into whatever one wanted it to be. It did not do clothing though; so he was stuck in his new, long sleeved maroon jumpsuit.

The technique itself was based on Naruto's newest ability at the time of it's invention. In the beginning, it was believed that what the two boys were playing off as "Jinchuuriki Puberty" (though it was in fact their newly formed partnerships with their inner bijuu) had given the blonde instant regeneration. It would have explained the fact the Naruto had not only survived a Chidori to the heart, but replaced the organ within half a minute of losing his original.

But they had been wrong. Naruto had become the world's first shape shifter and had merely shifted himself a new one. There was a funny story about how the Hokage had found out. He had woken up one morning with the face of a squirrel and had screamed like a little girl when he found out.

Not one of the blonde best moments, but was a good tale to bring up every so often to make Kushina-chan smile.

Gaara could not help but grin at the memory has he walked down the streets of Suna, taking in sights he had not seen in just under a decade. Finally finding the store he needed, the red head dropped the jutsu after checking to see if anyone was in eyesight. It would not be good if people started to wonder why Sabaku no Gaara was breaking into a retired shinobi's shop in the middle of the night. He approached the window and held out his hand.

While Naruto had gotten the ability to shape shift from his partnership with Kyuubi, Gaara had received the power to control glass as he did sand. He had discovered it a couple months after his escape from Akatsuki, when a civilian man had barged into his office and demanded to know why he was not financing his project. Gaara when from annoyed to pissed to down right furious within the five minute span that the man had ranted about how "this project will change Suna forever and you're going to make the biggest mistake of your political carrier." Just when he was about to tell the guy to shut the hell up and get out of his office, every window in the tower exploded.

People outside screamed as he raised his hand to protect them with his sand, only to have the glass stop midair. He had no idea that it would happen, and apparently, neither did Shukaku.

The good news was that the annoying civilian was gone.

The bad news was that he had had to pay for the replacement of all the windows in time for the next sandstorm. Out of his own pocket.

Not cool.

But back to the task at hand. Removing the entire pane of glass would be to obvious, so Gaara simply took a small sliver from the bottom. Valla, instant lock pick.

The man who owned the shop was a paranoid retired shinobi that had lost his leg early on in the Third Great Shinobi War. Crushed that he could no longer fight for Suna, he settled down and opened the place Gaara was breaking into now, selling everything from clothing to rations to some of the best crafted weapons in the entire village.

The lock clicking was music to Gaara's ears and he stepped inside. Picking up a basket from the metal rack beside him, the red head began to scan the shelves for what he needed.

A first aid kit, a cooking set, dehydrated herbs for soup, bottle of soldier pills, rolls of bandages and wire, and a blanket were all squished into the basket. After that Gaara found ink and scrolls for sealing, as well as a mini sewing kit to make pouches inside his sashes to carry them, before turning to the clothing section.

Shortly after becoming the newest Spymaster of Konoha, the red head created the persona of Kaze no Kanako for the parts of his job were he needed to do field work without showing his face. Kanako was flirty to the point of being promiscuous, carried a pair of sharp Shukusen, and had the "morning after" hairdo going on _all the time_.

The outfit in front of him was perfect.

It consisted of a brown leather corset and a pair of extremely short pair of shorts. The beige belt could holster the war fans while the knee-high boots would finish off the whole "I just walked out of a strip club" look.

There was a reason, after all, why no one had guessed that Sabaku no Gaara and Kaze no Kanako were one and the same. The mental image was just too frightening.

"**Remember to pick up those daggers that the weapons-chick taught you how to use,"** Shukaku voice rang out. Sighing, Gaara glanced over the old man's selection of pointy objects. Catching sight of what he needed, the red head picked out a small tanto from the rack.

During one of his training sessions with Lee, Gaara had pulled out a kunai in an attempt to defend himself from the green clad jounin. His teammate, Tenten, had seen his horrible form and had literally dragged him off by the ear to teach him how to use a knife properly, muttering the entire time about "how the hell did you become Kazekage, holding a kunai like _that_." The kunoichi had become one of his most trusted friends and his best agent during his time in Konoha, passing on her love of weaponry to him.

They had had a relationship at one point, though it had never gotten incredibly intimate. The two of them broke it off only a couple months after getting together, telling their friends that it was not professional to see each other like that, him technically being her boss and all. But the real reason was that Tenten still was in love with Neji, who had been forced into an arranged marriage with Hinata, and he was head over heals for Sakura. They had understood and called it off when they realized that it was not working.

The tanto in his hand was more of a hochogata than anything else, being only about seven inches long from the beginning of the handle to the tip of the blade. The saya was simple and black, and had a pair of straps that he could use to attach the blade to his arm.

Moving to the check out counter, something caught his eye. A pair of shukusen, each having a painted red dragon on the silk between the steel ribs. They would take a giant chunk out of his budget, but he could manage.

"_Let's see,"_ Gaara thought, _"all of this should add up to…um…Shukaku? Help?"_

Mumbling about his containers lack of mathamatical skills, the bijuu gave him a large number, mentioning that he should probably leave the old guy a tip so he did not have a heart attack the next day when he discovered that his shop had been broken into.

Grinning ear to ear, Gaara left the store, heading back to the compound.

* * *

Seven o'clock. It was seven o'clock in the morning and Gaara could hear the thumping of his sisters feet as she ran into the washroom. He was in the kitchen leaning over a steaming cup of coffee, but his throut was too tight for him to drink it.

He was scared, no terrified. He had an act to keep up, one that had not been used in eighteen years. The jinchuuriki did not know if he could still play the part of the monster that he once was, having been a well respected politian and uncle to one of the sweetest kids in the world (regardless of what Ino said about her Kenji-kun). Gaara just could not hate everything that breathed anymore, or even lie to himself so that he believed he did.

The aura of Shukaku's youkai, hot and dry like the desert, surrounded him in an attempt to calm his nerves. It helped a bit, allowing the red head throat to unclench so he could swallow some coffee.

He needed to be composed or people would begin to suspect that the Gaara of this time had been replaced by an enemy ninja. Though that theory was partically true, unwanted questions were really not needed now. Sighing, he ran a hand through his red locks, only to come up short at the bottom.

Gaara began to grow his hair out a few years previous when he had been so buried in paperwork that he had no time to get it cut. So he had simply tied it back Itachi-style, leaving the top to spike out as it normally did.

But before he could mourn the loss of his hair, Temari and Kankuro walked into the room like they had not been dead for eleven years.

They did not even notice him sitting there as they argued about who was going to cook breakfast. As usual, Temari smacked the puppet-master (though now Kankuro was only a user) in the back of the head, homing in on the stove to make gohan, while his brother headed to the fridge.

It was so normal that Gaara just sat there in complete shock.

It was normal to see Temari attempting to cook breakfast in nothing more than an oversized t-shirt. It was normal to see Kankuro, clad only in a pair of shorts, raiding the fridge for something to eat. This was how it was supposed to be, just the three of them, here, every morning. And Gaara would do anything to make sure that it stayed this way – this time around.

And then the moment was ruined when the Yondiame Kazekage walked into the room.

"What are you doing here?" the man – not his father, _never_ his father – questioned, catching sight of his red hair instantly. Temari and Kankuro turned around, eyes reflecting their surprise, confusion, and, dare he say it, fear.

It was times like these were Gaara really realized just how much he had changed since his fight with Naruto all those years ago.

"**You're never in the kitchen this early,"** Shukaku pointed out, **"You only started to eat with them after you fought the bone wielding boy."**

The red head swallowed and then forced himself to answer, "What's it to you?"

Maybe it was a little too sarcastic, but Gaara did not care. He had never considered that man to be family anyways. Baki had raised him. Baki had shown him the ropes.

Baki was his father.

The only thing that the jinchuuriki had yet to forgive his sensei for was the time that he had given him "The Talk." Gaara had been unable to look a female in the eye for a month afterwards without turned several shades of scarlet.

The Yondiame sat down, barking at Temari to hurry up with the food while Kankuro ran from the room to go "check on something." Gaara looked at his reflection in his coffee, trying to force down the urge to punch the man in the face.

A cough to his right brought him back to the real world. Kankuro was back, placing a large bowl of miso soup on the table. Temari, the one who had coughed, was holding a red bowl of rice.

"Um," she stuttered, not knowing how the deal with him, "Here."

She thrust the bowl along with a pair of chopsticks towards him. Gaara nodded, his wide eyes never leaving her face, and reached out with shaking hands to take them. Their hands brushed and, dear kami, she was _real_.

Temari sat in front of him, Kankuro to her left, and just…started to eat breakfast. Just like nothing had happened.

Like they had not died.

Like Suna had not fallen to the Nanabi no Kabutomushi.

Like the continent's population had not been reduced to four people in just under a year.

"_Because,"_ Gaara realized, _"it hadn't. It's the ultimate paradox: everything's happened, and yet it has yet to occur."_

He glanced at the rice bowl in front of him, before picking up his chopsticks and began to devour his sister's cooking like a starving man, ignoring the looks he got for his actions.

Heh. It still tasted like crap.

He almost cried.

* * *

****

**Man that was long. But I had a lot to get out so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. But before I go, I would like to address a few things that showed up in this chapter.**

**Youkai:** I believe that a bijuu's chakra is different from a human's, so I'm calling Shukaku's, Kyuubi's, and whatever other bijuu that might show up's chakra youkai.

**Spiritial Chakra vs Physical Chakra:** It was Gaara's soul that came back, along with anything that was attached to it (the identification seal, Shukaku). Nothing physical. In the last chapter when Older!Gaara touched Younger!Gaara on the head, their souls merged and Older!Gaara's spiritual chakra was added on the reserves in Younger!Gaara's body.

**Kage Henge:** In this story, Henge is simply a genjutsu placed over one's body to fool the senses of touch and sight. If I were to henge into Iruka, for example, and you were to poke me, your mind would tell you that you are touching me, but in reality you aren't. Kage Henge actually transforms the body, but can't change a persons clothing as it is not attached to the body itself.

**Naruto's Shapeshifting Ability:** It comes from the legend saying that kitsune are shapeshifters. Say that Naruto were to lose an arm. He could tell his body to regrow his arm, but at the same time, turn it into a monkey's arm or something like that. He can change his appearance and regrow lost body parts. As for how he survived a point blank Chidori to the heart, well I'm taking this from good old Haku here. He lived long enough to grab on to Kakashi, so I'm guessing that he had about fifteen seconds before he bled out. Naruto on the other hand, has the Kyuubi, so I'd give him a little longer. It was just enough time to form a partnership with Kyuubi and get his regeneration powers. Naruto has not told anyone about this, except for Gaara, and the two are playing it off as "Jinchuuriki Puberty."

**Gaara's daggers:** According to Wikipedia, a tanto is a common Japanese single or, occasionally, double edged knife or dagger with a blade length between 15 and 30 cm (6-12 inches). The tantō was designed primarily as a stabbing weapon, but the edge can be used for slashing as well. A hochogata is a tantō form that is commonly described as a short, wide, hira. The hochogata was one of the tantō forms that Masamune (an ancient sword smith whose name has become legend) favored. A saya is a scabbard.

**Pairing:** Look on my profile for these.

**Breakfast:** I'm going with Wikipedia again on this, so correct me if I'm wrong. A standard Japanese meal generally consists of several different okazu accompanying a bowl of cooked white Japanese rice(gohan, 御飯), a bowl of soup and some tsukemono (pickles). The most standard meal comprises three okazu and is termed ichijū-sansai (一汁三菜; "one soup, three sides"). Different cooking techniques are applied to each of the three okazu; they may be raw (sashimi), grilled, simmered (sometimes called boiled), steamed, deep-fried, vinegared, or dressed. This Japanese view of a meal is reflected in the organization of Japanese cookbooks, organized into chapters according to cooking techniques as opposed to particular ingredients (e.g. meat, seafood). There may also be chapters devoted to soups, sushi, rice, noodles, and sweets.

**Questions are welcomed.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**

**EDIT: This is the updated version with cannon bijuu**


	4. Chapter 3: Fated Escort Mission: Start!

**Fated Escort Mission: Start!**

Akatsuki was an organization known for many things: the S-Class Missing-nin, the strange abilities that each of their members possessed, and the black cloaks with red clouds, just to name a few.

But the most interesting – and probably the most overlooked – part of the Akatsuki was their rings. They were small, inconspicuous, lightweight, and undoubtedly the most brilliant piece of communication technology invented since the walkie-talkie.

If the ring glowed one, it signalled a group meeting via a hologram projected through the rings.

If the ring glowed twice, it signalled that another group member needed to talk to you, also via hologram.

If the ring glowed three times, it signalled that the leader was demanding to speak with you.

In person.

The day that Sasori's and Deidara's rings glowed three times, the blonde decided that it was going to be a very bad day.

The meeting place was not in Amegakure itself, but a safe house just outside the borders. The wooden walls were worn and rotting, some of the doors had even fallen off the hinges. The floors creaked and the house itself swayed in even the slightest breeze.

"You're late," a deep and gravelly voice came from the corner. Deidara swung around just in time to see Kakuzu and Hidan step out of the shadows.

"You too?" the bomber asked, "Something big must be going on, yeah."

"No shit, dickhead," Hidan sneered, "The whole gangs here, minus that fucker Zetsu."

"Leader is here?" asked Sasori, "I don't see him."

"He's in there," another voice came from behind, revealing Hoshigaki Kisame, who was pointing to the door in another room, "With Konan-san and Itachi-san."

"What did that bastard do to get us all roped into a meeting with Leader?" Deidara spat.

"I dunno," the blue skinned man released the clasps holding his sword and placed it on the ground, "But Itachi-san has been acting really weird the last couple of days. He just woke up one day, in the middle of a mission, and told me that we were going to Ame. Next thing I know, he's breaking into Leader's tower and beating the hell out of the guards, doing some of the craziest shit I've ever seen with his eyes _closed_. And then he just walks in on the Leader and hands the guy a scroll that I know he didn't have before, saying that he 'needed to talk.' Then the rings start glowing and the four of us are running for the safe house like the Shinigami is on our tail.

"I have no idea what is going on, but Itachi-san is in there talking with Konan-san and," Kisame paused, looking uncertain for a bit, "I think its Leader."

"What the hell do you mean you 'think' it's Leader?" Hidan asked.

"Leader's always had spiky hair, right?" the former Kiri-nin said, pointing to his own hair as an example, "Well this guy doesn't. In fact, the guy doesn't look like he's eaten properly in months. He's got Leader's eyes and voice, but that's it as far as similarities go."

"Eyes closed?" Deidara interrupted, "As in he didn't use his Sharingan, yeah?" Kisame nodded, equally confused.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Sasori.

Their conversation was cut short by Konan entering the room. Her hair fell unbound on her shoulders and worry marked her beautiful face.

"Take off you cloaks and your rings," she ordered, "Put them in a pile and burn them. Make sure nothing is left. And, damn it Sasori, get out of that stupid dummy."

The four men obliged, Sasori the most reluctantly.

"Konan," the red head question, "What's happening?"

"Itachi will explain everything. Now get in there, we've got a huge problem," the woman explained, fear evident in her voice.

"Wait a minute," Kakuzu asked as they filed in, "What about Zetsu and that runt that follows him around all the time? Tobi?"

"The last thing we need is for them to be here," heads swivelled around once more before coming to rest on two figures, both with jet black hair. Uchiha Itachi was the first, his headband now resting over his eyes. Beside him was another man, and Deidara could see what Kisame had meant. The guy looked starved to death, the bones of his rib cage showed through the thin blue t-shirt. Every breath he took sounded as if he fought for each one of them.

Just the sight of him brought back memories of the war and the famine that had plagued Iwa for years after.

The man raised his head and Deidara saw their Leader's eye in the place where his long dark hair parted down his face.

"Sit down," Leader ordered, "And what Itachi is about to tell you never leaves this room."

"_Yep,"_ Deidara thought to himself, _"It's going to be a very bad day, yeah."_

* * *

Gaara leaded against the wall of the empty hallway, gourd at his feet as his siblings' footsteps sounded throughout the house as they gathered what they would need for the day. It had been a week since he had made his jump into the past and Baki had given them notice just yesterday that the Kazekage had assigned them an important mission.

God, it was good to see the older man again, minus a few wrinkled and grey hairs. It had taken all of Gaara's willpower not to run up and throw his arms around his sensei's waist. He had missed Baki a lot, but now the man barely knew him.

"**As fun as it is listening to your angsty inner monologue, I need to know, have you got everything you need?"** Shukaku asked.

"_Yes,"_ he responded.

"**Tanto?"**

"_Check."_ The blade was strapped to his right arm under his sleeve.

"**Scrolls?"**

"_Check…and check."_The twin rolls of paper were securely concealed on the inside of his sash.

"**ID Seal is hidden?"**

Gaara mentally sighed, but pulled up his left sleeve to make sure that the bandages had not moved, _"Check."_

"**Are the scars on your knuckles covered by the armour?"**

The red head flexed his fingers, trying to see if the angry red lines showed through the thin layer of sand on his hands. During the night while the others were sleeping, Gaara spent his time trying to build his twelve year old body back up to what it had been in the future. He had a long way to go, but at least he was getting some of his calluses back.

What he did not need was his brother and sister wondering why his hands were beginning to show the signs of him being a taijutsu user. There would be too many questions, and Gaara did not want to have to tell them of his failure to protect them.

"_Yes mother, they are. Can I go now or do I need to give you a kiss on the cheek before I do?"_ the red head asked with visible sarcasm.

"**Very funny, kid,"** the bijuu answered, **"You're a riot. Just don't quit your day job."**

His inner conversation was cut short by the entrance of his siblings. Temari adjusted her purple kimono – the one he had given her secretly when she was eleven – one last time as Kankuro straightened his kitty-hat – he did not want to look like his father, and Gaara made sure he would not – before coming to a halt in front of him.

The red head let his eyes wander over them one last time before picking up his gourd and swinging it onto his back.

"Let's go," he said, his emotionless mask sliding over his face as Temari took her place on his right and Kankuro on his left. They walked into the busy streets of Suna, just like they had a lifetime ago.

But it was not the same.

Here, Gaara was feared and hated for the monster that resided in the seal on his shoulder. He had forgotten what it was like, where people could look as him, but not see him but Shukaku instead.

It hurt, not just because his people feared and hated him, but Shukaku, his friend, as well.

And it was not just that. Though bustling, the streets of Sunagakure rather empty compared to the ones in him memories. Many of the shops were run down and carried little stock. Several of them had been forced to close. There was evidence of poverty everywhere and there was not a street that the three of them had turned down that they had not seen at least three homeless people.

"_This is stupid,"_ Gaara though angrily, _"We have the money in the budget even now with the daimyo cutting our income to get the village back on its feet. Instead those idiots up in the tower are spending it on their freaking civil war with Takigakure. There's no logic in it at all."_

"**Of course there no logic in it,"** the sand spirit said, **"Both the Sandaime and Yondaime were high off their power as Kazekage. And you know what they say about those with power."**

"_But still, it isn't right."_

"**Then make it right,"** Shukaku encouraged, **"Become Kazekage again and fix this mess. You did it last time, you can do it again. Make sure that things are right so that when we die you can say that you lived a good life."**

Gaara almost tripped over his own feet at the bijuu's words, _"We die? What do you mean 'we die'?"_

He felt an uncomfortable shift in yokai before Shukaku spoke, **"You saved me that day when you were sixteen. According to the laws set down by the Kamis themselves, I owe you what is called a life debt. I will follow you though the Gates of Hell back if you asked me to, but not just because of some thrice damned law.**

"**You're my friend, Gaara, and the closest thing that I have now to a son. And I'm not going to loose the only family I have left."**

And then the bijuu went abnormally quiet and refused to talk to him anymore.

Needless to say, Gaara was shocked. Shukaku had never been so open before, not even in the original timeline. But why him? Why not the other two jinchuuriki, Shinji and Chi, that had come before him? What made him so damn special?

"_I'm not going to go get my self killed, Shukaku,"_ the red head projected his thoughts inward, _"There's too much that I have to do before I can even think about dying."_

The bijuu did not respond, but reopened their connection to speak.

"Gaara," Temari brought him back to the real world, "It's this way." She pointed to an open area and, low and behold, Baki stood at its center.

It was becoming more normal to see the man he had considered a father alive and well over the past few days, but the shock was still there. That was understandable, considering how Baki had –

_Their oxygen was running out. The hospital only had so much, and damn it, why had they insisted they take a tank, when it could have gone to someone else? The buzzing had gone but the poisonous fog still remained. Baki took off his mask, leaving the rest of the air for him, and Gaara was forced to watch as his senseiadviserfatherfriend whispered "Live Gaara" in the voice of a dying man before his eyes rolled back and – _

died.

Gaara shook his head to clear it. Flashbacks of…the incident…where not needed right now. He walked towards his team, eager to start the mission that he had failed long ago.

"The mission that the Kazekage has assigned us is simple," Baki explained, "We are to escort Fuura Diachi back to his home village, Kochi. After that, we stay behind to protect them until they are able to build proper fortifications of their own."

"Kochi?" asked Temari, "That village is just inside the Kusa border. Why are they coming to us?"

"Because our spies got wind that Takigakure is planning to take over that village. While it is not within our borders, Kochi is a close enough location that if they start putting shinobi there it will start making the Kazekage sweat."

Gaara nodded, understanding full well that Taki shinobi in Kochi had been one of the many reasons why the Kazekage had joined up with Orochimaru and Oto in the first place.

"We need to complete this mission to make sure that Takigakure's plan cannot succeed. That is why this mission is a B-Rank, bordering on an A."

His siblings responded with a "Hai!" while Gaara nodded again.

"Also," Baki added, glancing cautiously in his direction, "There will be another team coming with us…"

"What?!" Kankuro yelled, "We are qualified enough for this job!"

"It's not my decision to make. These," the older man pulled a set of files from his flank jacket and handed them to the other two, "are the files of the people coming with us."

Gaara glanced at them from the corner of his eyes, knowing that they probably would not pass them over to him (the old Gaara would not have cared). A female sensei, a girl in green, two boys, one of which had…

"_Damn,"_ he thought, glancing up at his red hair, _"I'm going to have to deal with the Tanakas."_

It was not rather talked about thing, but many of the people of Suna had guessed that his mother had not been incredibly faithful to the Kazekage around the time of his conception. His flaming red hair was completely unheard of outside the Tanaka Clan; a prosperous and well liked family in Suna due to the fact that the Shodai Kazekage had been one.

The fact that Gaara's mother's best male friend had been the Tanaka heir and looked _exactly_ like him had not helped the rumours at all.

The clan leaders had apparently driven the man into exile after that particular discovery. There had never been any tests to confirm it, though, out of fear that it might be true. If it were discovered that the youngest son of the Kazekage was illegitimate, the Yondaime's reputation would be washed down the drain.

But that too, was to be accepted. Many clans did not want to have him and Shukaku tied to them, especially not as a bastard child.

"Gaara," Baki said, "This is a very important mission to Suna. Please don't kill the other team or our client. I don't want to have to deal with the mess later."

Gaara looked his sensei dead in the eye and said, "Fine."

But what he meant, and what Baki probably saw in his teal eyes, was, "Trust me; I won't fail you or anyone else, no matter what."

That was probably what made the older man back up a step or two and give him an odd look, "We leave in half an hour. Dismissed."

* * *

**This is the super duper updated version with a red headed Nagato, as well as cannon bijuu and jinchuuriki.**


	5. Chapter 4: First Blood

**I have returned!**

**Um...nothing exciting to report, so here's my witty disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the concept of Naruto. That belongs to Kishimoto. But Izumi, Wataru, Hibeki, Takama, and Diachi are mine.**

* * *

Chapter 4: First Blood

The desert that made up most of Kaze no Kuni had not always been the sandy monstrosity that it is today. Legend has it that it was once a thriving jungle of lush plants and flowing rivers. Its people were a peaceful, honour-bond society that lived atop the green trees rivalled the sizes those found in the Hi no Kuni these days. They lived in splendour, perhaps too much splendour, as that was their downfall.

There is a story about a young priest with hair the colour of life blood who fell in love with a woman. He courted her in secret, giving her gifts and asking for nothing more than her hand in marriage. He loved her more than anything in the world, even though it was against the code of the temple to do so.

And then one day the girl told him she was pregnant with his child.

They managed to keep it secret for several months before the head priest found out. The woman was set for execution on the grounds of that she had seduced the young man into her bed for their tribe's secrets. They were wrong, of course, as she had never intended to. The execution was pushed back for of her pregnancy because the child that she carried within her was innocent of its mother's sins.

The head priest slit her throat the moment she came out of labour. The woman never even got to hold her baby.

The father of the child lost his respect at the temple and fled on a moonlight night. He cried out to the skies, calling upon his people's god, Fujin of the Wind, to avenge his beloved. The god sent powerful gales across jungle, tearing trees out of the earth and upturning the soil before giving rise to the first sand storm. Before the night was over, Fujin had turned their paradise into a desert hell.

The tribes took to the caves, hoping to appease their god with, but that only made him angrier. The heat did not stop, the winds did not cease, and all hope of the return of their old home died with the passing of the older generation.

Sabaku no Gaara sat at the mouth of one of these caves near the Ame-Suna border, watching the sand whip by with enough force to strip a man of his skin, and wondered if this was how the Tribes of Old felt when they faced the unknown for the first time.

* * *

Fuura Diachi was annoying, and that was coming from someone who had Shukaku ranting in the back of his head for a good portion of his life. The man acted like a spoiled noble; demanding this, wanting that, and giving little to no respect to the shinobi who were guarding him. He had even had the utter gull to flirt with Temari, who was nearly ten years younger than him. Gaara's little brother instincts had kicked into high gear at that point. Needless to say, Diachi was now sitting as far away from his sister has he could.

Gaara knew the man was full of himself, though. The clothing he wore looked expensive, but under closer inspection one could see it was made of the cheep, rough fabrics of Kusa. His green hair was dirty and his teeth were crooked, so it made the red head think that Diachi was simply trying to look rich. For what reason, he did not know.

There was a rustling to his left, which made him turn. The girl from the other team, Watanabe Izumi, was looking through one of the bags.

Izumi could be defined as "cute" in his books, kind of like people found teddy bears to be cute. Her brown hair fell limp to her shoulders and her bangs nearly covered equally brown eyes. Her green t-shirt ended just past of her chest, revealing a mesh covered stomach. A beige, half-apron skirt covered bottle green pants that cut off at the knee. Her blue hitai-ate was tied around her neck. She was young, probably a year younger than him.

"What are you looking for?" Gaara asked. The girl jumped, clearly terrified of him. She shook and tried to squeak out an answer.

"_God, she's shy,"_ he thought before speaking again, "I asked you a question, Izumi-san."

"F-F-Food, Gaara-sama. I'm l-l-looking for fo-food," her hands trembled as she answered.

The red head sighed, "Who told you to look in there?"

"K-Kankuro-sama…" Izumi gulped.

"That's Baki's pack," trust his brother to pull a prank on the rookie genin, "Any food you find in there will probably attack you."

She dropped the bag in a panic. Gaara sighed again before fishing out one of his scrolls and tossing it to her, "In there you will find some dehydrated herbs. Put them in boiling water and you'll have soup in ten minutes." Izumi stared at him like he was an alien creature, "I'd go before someone gets hungry."

She nodded before scampering back to the makeshift fire.

"**She's not just skittish around you,"** Shukaku pointed out, **"Look at her. She makes a twelve year old Hinata look confident."**

Gaara glanced over to see that the demon was right. Izumi jumpy, even around her teammates and sensei, showing a sever lack of self-confidence. Something must have happened in her past, which caused her to turn out like this.

"_Poor girl,"_ he thought before looking away. Tanaka Hibeki was glaring holes into his head again.

The boy had spiky red hair and pitch black eyes. His blue Suna hitai-ate was wrapped around his right arm, just peaking out from below his tan coloured shirt. The symbol for the Tanaka clan, a triangle split into three parts, was sewn onto the back. He wore brown shorts that carried a medium sized scroll on his hip.

Hibeki had a short temper, Gaara discovered. He had snapped at Diachi more times than he could count over the course of the day, causing him to be berated by his sensei. The boy also appeared to have a grudge on him, which during these times was considered either incredibly brave or incredibly suicidal.

"Food's ready," Hibeki called, giving the pot one last stir. Gaara picked himself up off the rock he had been sitting on and made his way over to the fire. Someone passed him a bowl of soup, still warm for the fire. He glanced over at Kankuro, who was looking at the pot in some kind of horror.

"Is there something wrong, Kankuro," Baki asked.

"No," was his brother's quick reply. Gaara's eyes flicked to Izumi, who was blowing cool air at the soup on her spoon. Though her face was the epitome of innocence, her eyes were filled with mischief.

"_I guess there's hope for her yet,"_ he thought.

He released the straps binding his gourd to his back and set it down behind him with a _thump_ before finally sitting down between Temari and the third member of the other team, Kato Wataru.

The boy could have been a twelve year old Itachi's twin, if he did not smile so much. A red sleeveless shirt covered a mesh t-shirt and hung low over long black pants. A pair of small fans was attached to a belt that was strapped over his shirt. His hitai-ate was tied around his forehead.

Wataru was pretty cool. He was not as afraid of him as Izumi was, but did not show the hatred that his other teammate did. While he was still nervous at being around the monster of Suna, it was a nice change from the other looks he got half the time.

Downing the soup as fast as he could, Gaara looked over at the sensei of what had been dubbed Team 24. Mori Takama was a fresh jonin, having only been nominated about three months ago. Her brown-almost-black hair flowed down her back in curls, accenting the tans and greys of the standard jonin uniform. Except that uniform was missing one thing, which made Gaara's eyes widen.

"_Shukaku?"_

"**Yeah?"**

"_She's not wearing anything under that flank jacket, is she?"_

"**Yeah."**

"…_Whoa…"_

"…**Yeah."**

There was a pause, before _"Why the hell am I being affected like this? I mean, I've seen girls wearing next to nothing before and I've been able to look the other way. What's wrong with me?"_

"**Isn't it obvious?"** Shukaku said, clearly amused at situation, **"While your mind and soul are of a thirty year old man, your body is that of a twelve year boy.**

"**It's in the early stages, but you're going through puberty. Again."**

Gaara would have cried if it was not so out of character.

Shukaku just thought that his container was a silly little creature.

* * *

The Suna nights were as cold as they were dry. Gaara insulated himself in layers of sand before wrapping his blanket around himself to keep warm.

It was about three in the morning on their second day of the journey. Today they would be crossing the Ame border, which was something that terrified him. Gaara had no idea if he would be hauled off by Akatsuki to extract Shukaku from his body. Akatsuki was a wild card at this point in time, and could move in any direction.

The red head did not like that thought.

But following a more optimistic view point, since Ame was such a paranoid military state, they would have to be escorted through the country by guards. No enemy ninja would be dumb enough to try an attack Diachi then.

Gaara poked at the dying embers of the fire with a stick, trying to coax that last bit of heat back into the air. It was third watch and Hibeki sat across from him, looking fiercely at him. The others were fast asleep, snuggled up in their bedrolls. Diachi was snoring louder than normal.

"Do you have a problem, Hibeki-san?" the Shukaku jinchuuriki asked.

The Tanaka twitched slightly, having not expected conversation, "No."

"Then can you stop glaring at me."

Hibeki snorted, before turning his head away. Gaara sighed, before moving his hand over to his canteen. Bringing it up to his lips, he found it to be dry. Grunting as he rose to his feet, Gaara collected his sibling's canteens as well before heading towards the back to the cave.

"Since when did the great and terrible Sabaku no Gaara do chores?" Hibeki mocked.

"Since your watch started. Pay attention, idiot," the time traveler answered before turning the corner.

Lucky for them, Takama knew this cave. There was an underground fresh water lake just below the ground that they could use for water while they waited out the sand storm. Gaara approached the pit that held the water, kicking a stone down the hole while he was at it. As he sat down to tie a rope to the mouth of the canteens he heard it clatter down the sides of the walls.

"Ow!"

"Shut up, idiot!"

That was not the sound of the rock hitting the water below.

Habits ingrained into him from the Suna-Oto war kicked in. Gaara slowed his breathing, suppressed his chakra signature to an all time low, and even quieted his heart beat. Slowly, he began to form hand seals: Snake, Monkey, Rat, Monkey, Bird, Monkey, Dragon, Monkey, Rat, Monkey.

_"Daisen no Me," _he thought to himself quietly before crushing the brown eye with his hand.

Reforming it in the pit, Gaara almost gasped at what he could see. Forgetting the canteens on the ground he raced back to the fire.

"You're back quick," commented Hibeki, "Scared of the dark?"

"Get everyone up, we've got a problem," he commanded. The Tanaka hesitated for a second, and that was all he needed to revert into Kazekage-mode, "I gave you an order, shinobi!"

Less than a minute later, all were awake and bleary eyed. Diachi grumbled, "Why has my beauty sleep being interrupted?"

"Two squads," Gaara began, "three shinobi each, are ascending from the lake below."

"Affiliations?" Baki questioned.

"They aren't wearing headbands so it's not official, but the colours of their clothing indicate that they're from Takigakure."

"Smart boy," the voice came from behind. The Suna shinobi turned to see six shinobi dressed in the blue and brown colours of Those Who Hid in the Waterfall. Their wet, baggy clothing and masked faces made distinguishing their genders impossible. "If it wouldn't be too much trouble," one of them asked, "could you hand over the commoner?"

"Sorry, that's not possible," Takama said in a polite voice, her fingers suddenly laced with wire. Temari and Wataru pulled their fans from their holsters and holding them like clubs, knowing all too well that any futon jutsu that they used would lash back on them in this tiny space. Kankuro brought Karasu to life with a flick of his hands. Hibeki unsealed a single Tanaka-style puppet from the scroll he carried, clothed in maroon and sporting a head that looked all too human. Baki's hands twitched at his side and Izumi slid into a defensive taijutsu stance.

Gaara's sand rustled on the cave floor, before leaping from the gourd and hurtling towards the enemy.

They blurred.

He caught one by the arm, sand wrapping itself around the limb as he closed his fist and crushed it. The shinobi howled in pain, cradling his (her?) ruined arm before leaping at him-

Temari sung her fan at another one's head, who just barely dodged out of the way. The shinobi pulled a kunai from its leg holster and made a slashing at her stomach. His sister jumped back and brought her fan down on the ninja's collar bone, breaking it with a sickening crunch-

Team 24 had formed a triangle around Diachi. Hibeki's puppet was sluggish, suggesting he was not an export at controlling it. Wataru blocked and lashed out wildly with his fans, hoping to get in a hit. Izumi had palmed a kunai and edged closer to her black haired teammate, wanting to fight but not really having the courage to jump in.

They were panicking; Gaara knew the signs well, having seen them in genin even younger than them during the war. Panicked humans made stupid decisions, decisions that sometimes ended in lives being lost.

But before he could act, poisoned senbon lodged themselves in the back of the ninjas' heads. Kankuro's puppets, Karasu – deadly and dangerous – clacked into sight, previously hidden by the shadows of the cave-

The air shifted on his left and wire sliced through the air as the two jonins took on of the remaining shinobi. Between Baki's expert wind chakra handling and the savage grace that Takama wielded with her strings, the guy did not stand a chance-

Gaara let his Suna no Tate take the initial punch from the anonymous shinobi in front of him, before coiling sand around the person's uninjured arm and flinging him/her into the cave wall. The ninja's back bent in a way that no human's was supposed to.

"_That's five,"_ he thought, _"And now where's six?"_

"Kankuro, behind you!" Temari yelled. Gaara turned just in time to see the final shinobi slip out of the shadows of a genjutsu behind his brother, kunai raised. Karasu would not be able to make it, he realized. He was going to loose him again.

Gaara did not know how it happened, or when or why, but the moment he was able to grasp that thought, the remaining ninja stopped being a random person sent to attack their client. The shinobi became male and gained long silver hair that was tied back in a pony tail at the base of his neck. The man's sickly white skin appeared to be flaking of him like a snake and his eyes glowed yellow in the darkness.

Sabaku no Gaara saw Yakushi Kabuto that night. And he reacted in the only way he knew how.

Anger.

Sand rocketed across the open space and wrapped itself around the man in a deadly desert coffin. Gaara clenched his fist, causing the technique to implode and crush the shinobi death. Blood sprayed outwards, drenching his brother's clothes.

"Sabaku Soso," he whispered finally ending the jutsu.

"Holy shit," Diachi, who he had forgotten in the heat of the moment, decided to make himself known, "But…you're just…they're just…kids…"

And then he passed out.

Wataru looked from the dead bodies of the shinobi who had attacked them to their client who was unconscious on the ground.

"Well this sucks…"

"Genin," Takama muttered, pulling back the mask of the one Temari had killed, "Maybe a fresh chuunin. Taki's not exactly pulling out all the stops for this village, eh?"

"Who said it's Taki?" Baki interrupted and then addressed Team 24, "You need to get a firmer hand on politics. Ok brats, why is this not an official attack?"

Hibeki and Wataru made little noises of embarrassment, while Izumi muttered something under her breath.

"Speak up girl, we ain't got all day," his sister snapped. Gaara had forgotten that at this time Temari hide behind a mask of indifference. She was, after all, the eldest child of the Kazekage and the sister of Suna's Ultimate Weapon.

"Th-they haven't g-g-got hitai-ate," the girl mumbled, "If th-they had them, this…this would ha-have been a c-c-cause for…war."

"Exactly," Baki said, "Now, the storm's died down for now so we can start moving again. Kankuro, you carry the client."

That did not sit well with his brother, "What?! Why do I have to? Get one of the rookies to do it."

"This is your punishment for letting that shinobi sneak up you. If it weren't for Gaara, you would be dead."

Shit, Baki had noticed it. Thankfully no one asked any questions.

"Oh," Kankuro said, before turning towards him, slightly humbled, "Thanks, I guess."

It was not until the sun was high enough in the sky for it to break through the rain clouds and they were half way through Ame under escorted guard that Gaara was able to whisper "You're welcome" in his brother's ear.

He found it quite amusing to watch his brother trip and fall face first into a puddle afterwards.

"_Oh yeah, I'm back,"_ he laughed inwardly. Shukaku could not agree more.

* * *

**Glossary:**

**Daisen no Me:** "Third Eye"  
**Type:** No rank, Supplementary  
**User:** Gaara  
This jutsu creates a floating eyeball out of sand that is connected to Gaara's optic nerves. Gaara can control the size of the eye depending on its use. Its main purpose is spying, since it can form and disperse in any location on command. This jutsu was used when Gaara fought Sasuke in the Chunin exams and was surrounded by the Sphere of Sand.

**Suna no Tate:** literally "Shield of Sand"  
**Type:** B-rank, Defensive, Short range (0-5m)  
**User:** Gaara  
This jutsu causes sand to automatically surround and protect Gaara from harm, even if it's self-inflicted, regardless of whether or not he wants it to. The shield is capable of withstanding considerably strong attacks and projectiles, and can be hardened to a point where it's stronger than steel. It can be defeated by avoiding it completely, with extremely high-speed attacks, or merely overcoming the shield with incredible brute force

**Sabaku Soso:** Sand Waterfall Funeral (_Sabaku Sōsō_; _Viz_ "Imploding Sand Funeral", _English TV_ "Sand Burial")

**Type:** Unknown, Offensive, Short to mid-range (0-10m)

**User:** Gaara

After wrapping an opponent with sand, Gaara will cause the sand to implode and crush whatever is within. When used to kill a person, the death is so quick that there isn't even time to feel pain. The pressure also produces a sizable fountain of blood. Gaara can control the pressure used in the attack, which allows him to merely break bones or completely liquefy an opponent.

* * *

**Enter Team 24, a series of misfits put together on a team by the Kazekage to keep them out of the way. Diachi, their client, is being annoying but he's got a good reason for it. I hope I did a good job at keeping Temari and Kankuro in character.**

**I like the legend at the beginning. It will play a role a little later on, but until then you're going to have to wait.**

**Have any of you ever read "For the Love of my Friends" by Foxie-sama? It's where I got the idea to write this fic from. I don't care if you don't like NaruHina, you should read it. I don't like NaruHina and I believe it to be one of the most epic Naruto fics on this site.**

**Also, there is "Naruto: Nine Demon Songs" by Lithius Amarantinos. It's amazing. I read this to get inspiration for the fight scene at the end. After all, the author has been called the God of Action Scenes, so there was no better place to start.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


	6. Chapter 5: Windows of the Soul

**Hello people! School is out and exams are over!**

**Damn you Danzo! I refuse to call you Rokudaime. That's Naruto's spot, you back-stabbing lowlife. Oh well, I am not changing my canon to fit you and your ambition in here.**

**For all those who are wondering about Danzo in this story, he was an 'unfortunate' casualty when Pein and Konan first attacked Konoha.**

**Apparently Nagato's hair was red. Odd, he looks more like the black haired type to me. I'll have to go back and change that in Chapter 3.**

**But at least everyone is okay in Konoha. Kakashi's alive and kicking, my froggies have returned, and everyone loves Naruto!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I mean, have you seen my attempts at drawing?**

**Chapter 5: Windows of the Soul**

"Baki-san," Diachi called, "Can you come here for a moment? I need to talk to you."

It was mid day in the Kusa no Kuni, the sun shone brightly against its clear blue background. The grass waved in the breeze, making the plains around them look like an ocean of green. It was warm, but not stifling like Suna or even the permanent summer weather of Konoha.

It was pleasant, Gaara decided.

This was their fourth and final day of travel and would reach the village of Kochi in less than an hour. And it seemed as if their client was finally going to come clean about whatever he had been covering up.

"My village," Diachi began, "it's…well…it's not really a village."

"Well, if it's not a village, then what is it?" asked Temari, her head tilted to the side.

"It was originally a refugee camp for those escaping Hanzo's dictatorship in Amegakure during the Second Great Shinobi War," the green haired man explained, "It has gotten a lot larger, but we're still classified as such on the censuses. We don't exactly have a lot of money to go around. We can just barely pay for this mission and still afford to build up defences. If this becomes an A-Rank…" he trailed off before starting again, "well, we're starving already."

"You won't be able to afford it," Takana observed and then pointed to his clothes, "But why all this? Why pretend to be rich?"

"No offense, but your Kazekage won't exactly take an offer from someone who doesn't have money coming out of their ass," Diachi mumbled, the southern Kusa drawl in his voice becoming more prominent with ever word.

"Why didn't you just go to your own ninja village with this?" asked Hibeki.

Their client scowled, "Cause' they wouldn't do a damn thing about it. They practically rolled over and let Iwa take over fifteen years ago, so Taki knows that they can walk in and no one will care. We didn't know who else to turn to. We sure as hell weren't going to Iwa, Konoha's not going to get involved in a war that's not theirs, and Ame might still be under Hanzo's rule for all we know.

"We had no other choice.

"Please…we can still afford it; we just can't give you the best lodgings and food."

The silence was deafening as the Suna nin thought it over. Finally Wataru spoke, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm staying. It's just a month of wallowing in the mud doing patrol. I'm not a coward."

But Gaara knew that he was saying, _"They need our help, so let's give it to them."_

"You calling me a coward?" Kankuro sneered at the younger boy, "I giving up on this, so watch your mouth!"

"_I'm in."_

"I'm not going to back out," Temari put her hands on her hips, "Unlike a few other wimps, a little mud won't slow me down."

"_So am I. Are you?"_

Izumi shrank back from the annoyed look on the older kunoichi's face and then answered, "I-I-I…will do m-my…best, T-Temari-sama…"

"_Definitely."_

"Hey, don't call Izumi a wimp!" Hibeki yelled, confirming Gaara's suspicions of him having a crush on his teammate, "I'll kick you ass, even if you are a girl!"

"Is that a challenge, pretty boy?"

"Yeah!"

"_I'm in, too."_

"_Great."_

"Enough," Gaara said calmly. Suddenly, all eyes were on him, "This mission continues."

"_I've got your backs, if you've got mine."_

Baki gave him a look before telling their client, "Let's move. We're wasting daylight."

Diachi let out the breath he did not know he was holding. These were good people after all.

* * *

Konohagakure's academy taught its students that a ninja was a silent, deadly assassin. Emotion would only truly hinder them on the battlefield. It was best to keep them inside and hide them always forever.

Konohagakure's academy thought that Uzumaki Naruto would fail as a ninja because he could not do this simple thing.

They were wrong.

Senjutsu, or the Sage Arts, was different than anything ever seen before. You had to be open, for the simple reason that you were connected to the earth and the sky and the oceans themselves when you entered Sage Mode. If you bottled it up, if you kept everything to yourself, you would go insane. As a Sage, your very mind was everywhere at every time, but then you had to keep a distinctive sense of self so that you remembered who and what you were.

You had to be ready to act as one of the world's tenketsu.

The result of failure was horrifying.

Naruto had seen the statues at Mt. Myobokuzan. He had seen what had become of those who had failed along the path to becoming who he was today. He would not end up like them.

That was a promise.

He sat a top the middle of the three logs in the centre of Team 7's training grounds, completely still with his eyes closed. Entering Sage Mode had been second nature to him when he was in his thirty year old body, but now it was a little trickier.

"_A bit less,"_ he thought inwardly at the Kyuubi, _"I can feel myself getting webbed fingers."_

The King of the Bijuu grunted, but toned down the Sage Chakra.

Naruto had always known that him being a jinchuuriki was what made him the greatest of the toad sages. Not only did you need a large amount of chakra to begin with (which he had in shapes), but with the Kyuubi's help he was the first person to ever be able to use Senjutsu without the help of the elder toads.

Naruto concentrated, probing outward with his senses at the village around him.

Team 8 was walking towards their meeting place with Kurenai (had Akamaru really been that small once).

The Sandaime Hokage was leaning back in his chair; gazing over the village (it was good to see the old man back in action again, after all these years).

Kakashi, his nose in Icha Icha Paradise, was having to turn back because a black cat crossed his path (what do you know, the guy was telling the truth after all).

Sakura was walking up behind him…

"Hello there, beautiful," Naruto turned his golden eyes towards her light green ones, "I knew you couldn't stay away for too long."

The old Sakura – _the fake Sakura ­_– would have decked him for his actions, but this one smiled and laughed. Then she noticed his eyes.

"Have you made any progress with those?"

He nodded, turning completely towards her, "I've almost got it. It's really hard, I'm used to using more Sage Chakra than this body can handle. But with my old chakra still merging with the chakra from this time, it's going to take a while longer."

"I know what you mean. My metabolism has shot through the roof," with that Sakura pulled out a chocolate flavoured energy bar and began to eat, "With the way I'm eating, I should be twenty pounds over weight. If anything, I'm a size smaller."

A chakra signature started to make its way over to their training grounds.

"Sasuke's on his way," he informed his wife. To the Kyuubi he said, _"All right, let's call it a day."_

"**Fine. Have fun hiding from the Uchiha now, mortal."**

"_It's not hiding! It's just-."_ But at heart, he knew what it really was. Naruto had been avoiding his other teammate.

"How are you doing? With Sasuke, I mean," asked Sakura.

"As good as can be expected," he responded as his eyes turned back into their natural shade of ocean blue and hoping down to great her, "How about you?"

The pink haired girl unconsciously rubbed her right hand, one that –_ a lifetime ago_ – had blown off Uchiha Sasuke's head in a fit of anger, "It's difficult. I…I can't act as if I love him as blindly as I did before, so I'm not going to. We can just be his friend, that's all he really needs. Right?"

"Do you think that what my father said in the dream was true?" Naruto asked, bringing up memories of last night and a visit from beyond, "About him having to choose between me and the world."

"Yes," Sakura said with a smile, wrapping her arms around him, "It's so like Sasuke that I wouldn't doubt it for a minute. I don't think he wanted it, though. I believe he regretted what he did."

Naruto rested his head in the crook of her neck, breathing in his wife's scent: the smell of the fruity shampoo her child-self used, the dry lilac soap, and beneath it, the all too human smell that could only be described as Haruno Sakura.

He loved her so much. And since they were alone, he wove his fingers through her short hair (she had gotten Ino to cut it the day they came back, saying something about a red ribbon) and kissed her as if his life depended on it.

"We'll get through this," Naruto promised as they sat, hand in hand against the poll, "We'll get through this. We'll save Sasuke, beat Orochimaru again, stop Akatsuki and Madara. And then I'll become Hokage and we can get married again and we'll have Kushina again; she can grow up safe and happy and-"

But that was lie. Kushina was as good as dead. The possibilities of having her and specifically her being born in a world were the timeline was constantly shifting was near impossible. No amount of wishing would ever change that.

"We'll get through this," Sakura repeated, as Sasuke came into view, "But first, let's go find Tora the Cat."

* * *

"Open the gates!" yelled Diachi, "I've brought the Suna shinobi to help!"

The row of sharpened wooden logs lurched backwards and revealed a young woman.

"Diachi-kun!" she yelled, running at the man and throwing her arms around him, "We were so scared."

"It's ok, these people are here to help us," he reassured her before turning to them, "Everyone, this is my wife, Hikari. Hikari-chan, these are…"

As Diachi introduced them one at a time, Gaara took in his wife. Fuura Hikari was beautiful, a gem amongst the mud. She had long blonde hair, a heart shaped face, and dark eyes. Her simple green kimono ended at her knees to reveal long creamy legs and robe sandals.

"If you'd like, I can get someone to show you around. I'd do it myself but…" Hikari stopped, and while gently smiling rested a small hand on her swollen stomach.

Gaara's eyes widened as he realized that this woman was with child.

"C-Congratulations!" Izumi smiled, her cheeks heating up.

"Thank you," the blonde said.

Diachi called one of his men over, "This is Taro. He's in charge of security here. He'll tell you whatever you need to know. I'm going to see if I can scrounge up any free beds for you." He gave his wife a kiss on the cheek, "I'll see you later, then."

Taro was a bald, heavily muscled man with a bow and quiver of arrows on his back, "The watch tower's up there," he pointed towards a high wooden structure with a rope ladder dandling in the wind as they moved through the camp, "You can take shifts up there. It ain't too stable, but it's the best we got.

"We've got some more men around the walls. I'll introduce you to them later…ah…what was your name again?"

"Baki" Gaara's teacher answered, "Just Baki."

"Well then, 'Just Baki', I'll let you take to them afterwards. They've never worked with shinobi before, so they're pretty interested."

Baki nodded and Taro continued, "Barracks on the left, that's where we all sleep when we're not watching out for trouble. It's loud, it's cramped, so I'm sorry if you don't get a lot of sleep."

Suddenly Gaara was very glad for his permanent insomnia.

"Latrines are over there," Taro waved his hand to a small shack on the right, "Seats about twenty. Men on the right, woman on the left, and no peeking. I won't have any perverts on my watch."

Kankuro twitched slightly, before coming to a stop behind everyone. In front of them was a large wooden structure.

"This is the mess hall," their guide explained, "It's open between eight-thirty in the morning till' ten at night. You're free to help yourself during that time. After that, you're just gonna have to fend for your self."

Taro guided them behind the kitchens and into a stable, "I don't know if you use horses, but we've got a couple in here if you need them. This girl," he petted the nose of a black mare, "is Hoshi, she's our fastest. Other than her, we've got Katashi. He's the gelding over there." Katashi, brown as the earth beneath them, snorted, "That's Hime, our little problem child. Watch out for her, she's trouble." Hime whinnied and stomped her feet. "And Noboro, the pack horse." Noboro was an old grey gelding in the corner.

Leading them out of the stable, Taro showed them a fairly new building. "This be our hospital. It's not much, but it's saved me on several occasions. Hikari works here sometimes, bless her heart, even with the baby coming."

There was a sound of stomping feet and then a large woman came bursting through the doors of the hospital.

"Doctor," she cried, "My little girl needs a doctor! She's bleeding!"

A small child clung to the hem of her skirt, balling her eyes out. The cut on her arm looked pretty bad.

Gaara was unable to use medical ninjutsu. It was not that he did not have the control or the skill, it just did not work. Naruto could not use it either, so they suspected that it had something to do with them being jinchuuriki. Youki itself was an incredibly destructive thing, even when used in the right hands. Healing with it was impossible. Regeneration is could manage, but not healing. With even the minimal amount that bled over the seal on his shoulder and into his normal chakra, it was enough to make sure he was unable to heal anyone with his chakra.

So he was helpless to watch as the doctor on call, a short little red faced man, struggle to bandage this poor child.

Until Izumi stepped in.

With confidence he had never seen in her before, the brown haired girl let her glowing green hands sweep over the child's arm. The cut may have been deep, but with a few minutes of hard work, Izumi was able to close it.

"Magic…" the child whispered. The young kunoichi blushed.

But this was not magic. It was the sign of an amateur medic nin. And it terrified Gaara.

Even when he was a kid, Gaara had this stupid rule about killing medics: he didn't. He could not really explain it; he just did not kill them. Perhaps it had something to do with Yashamaru, his first accident, or maybe his odd fascination with medics who could give life just as easily as he took them away.

And yet here was a girl that he had once killed out of sheer boredom, who was a medic.

Another accident.

Another mistake.

Sabaku no Gaara really hated himself at that moment.

* * *

Baki poked his chopsticks into the soba noodles (or what he thought were soba noodles) that the cook had served him at the mess hall. Today had been a very long day, after finding out that he would be spending the next month or so in a refugee camp would do that to someone.

The fact that he had not seen Gaara in almost an hour only made the matters worse.

Not that he did not know where the boy was; he had holed himself up in the watch tower after Taro had introduced them all to the guard squad. Gaara had stayed just long enough to be polite and then Suna Shushined out of there to start his watch.

But that was not what had Baki on the edge: he had seen the horrified look that the red head had given the Watanabi girl when she had pulled out her Shōsenjutsu and healed the cut on that girl's arm.

Baki was very aware of Gaara's little rule when it came to medical ninja. Just last year, the young jinchuuriki had almost violently protested against him killing a doctor in a foreign village. But after Kankuro had taken the older man out, Gaara simply shrugged it off; this was something completely different.

Baki had no idea what he was thinking when he scheduled Izumi's watch right after Gaara's. He knew that the red head would not kill her, but he would be in a foul mood afterwards.

A foul mooded Gaara usually meant dead bodies were going to start showing up.

Or would it?

Among many other things, Baki noticed Gaara's recent change in behavior: his sudden protectiveness of his siblings, his lack murderous intent, and his newly acquired need to help people.

Baki has seen the look the red head had given him the day that they had been assigned this mission to escort Diachi back to his home. It had shouted _"Trust me! I want to help! I'm a good person!"_

It had chilled him to the bones. Gaara just was not like that.

"Kankuro," he asked, turning to the painted boy next to him, "Have you noticed anything different about Gaara lately?"

The brown haired boy opened his mouth to laugh and then closed it, silently thinking his question over seriously. When Kankuro started to talk, it was uncharacteristically thoughtful, "Yeah, he has been acting pretty weird lately."

"How so?" Baki asked, titling his head to the side and winding his overcooked noodles around his chopsticks.

"Remember last night when we got attacked?" Kankuro started, "Gaara said 'You're welcome' to me afterwards. He never says that."

"He saved you, too," the older man commented, "That in itself is odd. And when we were leaving, he made sure to check the body of the boy who tried to kill you. He looked almost…relieved…when he pulled off the mask to see brown hair and eyes."

Kankuro snagged some mushrooms on the edge of his plate with his chopsticks, "He carries himself differently. Gaara's always been pretty uptight about everything, but now he looks almost…relaxed."

"Not relaxed," Baki corrected, "Just less tense. And his eyes…"

"Has he looked at you differently?" Kankuro asked all of a sudden.

Baki thought for a moment before responding, "Yes. Yes he has. Has he looked at you?"

The boy was silent, slowly playing with his food. And then he answered, "A couple weeks ago, Temari and I came into the kitchen and saw Gaara there. He's _never_ in the kitchen that early. And he was just looking at us like…like…"

"Like what?"

"Like he hadn't seen us in years," Kankuro said, wariness evident in his voice, "Like we were ghosts of people had he had seen die. He looked at us like that the entire day. Even now, sometimes I catch him watching us…like he's surprised we even exist. It's almost…frightening."

Baki thought back a few weeks and remembered a day when he had met with his team only to see Gaara stop in his tracks just to look at him. The boy had gazed at him with haunted eyes, fists clenched in the fabric of his pants. The red head's mouth moved, silently whispering "Baki?" before the corners twitched into something that could resemble a smile-

And then Baki was suddenly too aware that Gaara just a twelve year old boy, a child in all aspects, not the immortal creature that the council made him out to be. He was so small and alone that the older man had this overwhelming need to through his arms protectively around the boy and shelter him from the man he was supposed to call father, who dared curse this wisp of a child to the fate that was jinchuuriki-

And it was gone, just like that. The look of desperation had disappeared and all that was left in Gaara's teal eyes was a deadpan stare. It had been so sudden that Baki still did not know what to make of it.

But even now, Gaara's eyes had changed. They were the eyes of someone who had seen Hell, seen the tragedies only mankind could bring upon themselves. Baki had seen those eyes on himself and countless other shinobi how fought in the Third Great Shinobi War.

"He looks…" Kankuro began but was unable to finish, unable to describe what his younger brother had turning into to almost overnight.

"He looks old," Baki finished for him, "He looks tired. He looks like…he's seen war and death so many times over. And Gaara…for some reason…

"He looks like he's still fighting."

* * *

**Finally, they made it! It's taken, what, two chapters, but Gaara and co. have finally reached Kochi aka the Miserable Mud Pit.**

**Daichi's got a wife and a reason for being an ass earlier. Naruto is hiding from Sasuke. Gaara's drowing himself in his own angst for killing Team 24 in the other timeline because of his medic rule. Baki's begining to catch on.**

**What will happen next time on "I'll Do Anything"?**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**

* * *


	7. Chapter 6: There's a Beetle in the Woods

**One of the most awesome things in the history of awesome things has occured. Kishi has given cannon names to the bijuu and their jinchuuriki!**

**And I'm not just talking about Yugito and Roshi. I'm talking about all nine of them! Hurray for Kishimoto!**

**To give you the full list, we've got Gaara with the Ichibi no Shukaku, Yugito Nii with the Nibi no Bakeneko, Yagura with the Sanbi no Kyodaigame, Roshi with the Yonbi no Saru, Han with the Gobi no Irukauma, Utakata with the Rokubi no Namekuji, Fu with the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, Kirabi (or Killer Bee) with the Hachibi no Kyogyu, and, of course, Namekaze Uzumaki Naruto with the Kyuubi no Yoko.**

**Aparently Yagura is the cannon Yondaime Mizukage.**

**It's a good thing I never followed cannon, I'm not letting someone that cute and cuddly be that evil...**

**Anyways, the reason why I am rambling on about this is because I've changed a bit of this story and Save You to include the cannon bijuu. How Suna and the other villages got destroyed as well as Gaara flashback of Baki dying have been changed.**

**So enjoy the super duper newly typed version of I'll Do Anything!**

**Warning: There will be mild sexual material in this chapter. It is rated M for a reason, people.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of Naruto. That belongs to Kishimoto. I can, however, claim copyright for Takama, Izumi, Hibeki, Wataru, and any other manner of OC I happen to create in the near to distant future of this story.**

* * *

**Chapter 6: There is a Beetle in the Woods**

Watanabi Izumi climbed the rickety wooden ladder up to the lookout, hands trembling on each rung. She knew who was at the top of the platform and just what he could do if angered.

She had heard the tales that surrounded him: of his moonlight hunts, of his blood thirsty nature, of the demon that lurked just beneath his skin. Her mother had told her frightening stories of the Boy-Monster that ate children who they stayed out too late at night.

Sabaku no Gaara was the nightmare of her childhood and now she was heading right towards him.

Izumi could not even begin to comprehend how much that frightened her.

Finally stepping onto the dirty platform, the girl gazed out on the camp below her. The setting sun illuminated the mud brick homes below, casting long shadows into the makeshift streets. The plains beyond the walls swayed in the wind and the occasional tree stood out like a lone boat on the sea.

And there, leaning against the creaking railing of the tower like an ancient creature from an epic, was Gaara.

He stood with his back to her and his gourd of sand on the floor. His red hair – _so similar to her teammate's_ – waved in the breeze, making him look like any other teenaged boy.

It made him look human, but Izumi promptly ended that train of thoughts. No human could ever do what she had heard in the stories about him. Only a monster…

…Was he singing?

Yes, he was. An old song from Suna, a tune that she half remembered from the buskers during the festivals, flowed freely from Gaara's lips in his deep, gravely voice.

"_Kaze ga fuite aa itai keinai omoi_

_Nani omotte koka atsumete hitostu_

_Nido to nai nido to nai_

_Shitteru nante baka mitai_

_Mujaki ni natte aa ime-ji"_

Izumi took a hesitant step forward, and the wooden plank creaked under her foot. Gaara spun around, teal eyes wide and cheeks dusted with pink.

"How long have you been there?" he questioned.

The brunette swallowed as her body began to shake under his gaze. She decided to be honest, "O-o-only a…few min-minutes."

Izumi looked up from the floor into his teal eyes and strangely saw nervousness in them. But that was impossible; why would someone as powerful as him be wary of a weakling like her? It made no sense.

"What do you want?" his second question reminded her of why she was there.

"It's…m-my turn…f-f-for watch d-duty," and with that she hesitantly moved towards the railing. Gaara backed up behind her and grabbed his gourd, swinging it over his back.

"_It must get heavy after a while,"_ Izumi thought, remembering how often he took it off during their trip to Kochi. She gazed out into the growing darkness, picking out even the smallest of details on the ground.

"_Kaa-san always says…Kaa-san always said I had good eye sight."_

"Are you scared of me?" the question was so sudden; she had completely forgotten that he was there. Turning ever so slowly, she faced him.

How what she supposed to answer a question like that? 'Yes, you terrify me beyond belief' would be like sticking a bull's-eye on her back, but then a 'No' would be just as dangerous.

Like he had read her mind, he continued, "I wouldn't know how to answer that question, either, if I were in your place." He smirked – _just like Hibeki, so much like Hibeki_ – and shook his head slightly.

"Why do you want to be a medic?"

If the last question did not startle her, this one certainly did. Why would he want to know something like that?

"I…I c-c-can't really…do any-anything…else well. Shosenjutsu…is t-the o-o-only…thing th-that I've…managed to d-do…correctly."

"_Lies"_ her conscience whispered.

"_Quiet,"_ Izumi countered, _"What he does not know won't give him a reason to hunt me down."_

"I tried to do it once, Shosenjutsu I mean," Gaara said – _why was he telling her this?_ – "It didn't work out to well. I've got too much yokai in my system to perform the jutsu.

"You can save lives, Watanabi Izumi. That is something that I don't know if I can do."

And then it hit her: Sabaku no Gaara was trying to boost her confidence. He was trying to tell her that she was not weak or stupid or anything that the other girls in Suna said she was.

Gaara believe her to be something of worth.

Izumi did not know how to take that.

"Do you think I should try to do it anyways?" he asked.

"_Try to do what anyways?"_ she wondered for a minute, and then voiced it in the strongest voice she could find, "I…don't understand…t-the question…"

"Should I try to save lives even if the stakes are stacked so far up against me that only a fool continue to try?"

Izumi thought it over: would it be worth it, to try and fail? Yes, she realized, it would. It was better to say you did something to help that to say you did nothing at all.

The man that owned the weapons shop on Solstice Avenue had lost his leg trying to get his friend out of danger during the war. He had tried and failed, and was unable to stay a shinobi for his efforts, but he was still trying to do something for Suna, for his friend.

The proof was in the name of his store: _Diasuke's_, the name of his fallen comrade.

"Yes," Izumi nodded, but said nothing more.

Gaara's eyes widened and then something she had never expected to see occurred.

Sabaku no Gaara, the jinchuuriki of the Shukaku no Ichibi, the monster and weapon of the Kazekage, and nightmare of Suna, smiled.

"Thank you, Izumi-san," he said – _HibekiHibekiHibeki, he looked just like Hibeki_ – "You don't know what that means to me."

And then he turned, walking across the creaking floor towards the ladder, before stopping once more.

"Is there anything good at the mess hall?" he asked as his stomach gave a loud growl.

Izumi would have giggled had Gaara been anyone else.

"N-n-not really…but I-I'd s-s-stay…away f-from the…s-soba noodles. B-Baki-sensei…learned t-that the…hard way," she told him, remembering how the older man's eyes had nearly popped out of their sockets as he stood up from the bench he was on, "H-he…was still…i-in the lat-latrines…l-last time…I ch-checked."

Gaara shivered, "And here I though nothing could get worse that Baki's cooking. I'll see you around." And with that the red head slid down the ladder towards the ground. Izumi abandoned her spot on the railing to watch him go.

He turned back as if having sensed her eyes on him and waved. She turned around sharply, hands fisted in the cloth of her pants and a slight blush on her cheeks.

She had not realized it before, but Gaara kind of attractive. But that thought was then squashed when she made the connection that it was not that she found him handsome, but that he looked so much like her crush, Hibeki.

"_This mission might not be as bad as I thought it would be,"_ Izumi thought as she leaned back on the railing, watching a herd of giraffes pass by, _"Not that bad at all."_

* * *

She hated her hair.

It was just another thing that made her different, that made her stand out. And of all the colours for her to have, it had to be emerald green.

She looked like a freak: between her hair and her oddly coloured skin (not brown, but not tanned either) it was obvious that she had not come from any country in the Elemental Nations.

They had found her at the base of the tree that gave the village their Hero Water every one hundred years when she had been a baby, wrapped up in a blanket in a wicker basket. Inside was an envelope containing a single world: Fu.

Her name.

The village believed that she came from the Outer Rim, the area outside the continent where cannibals and monsters live. Her mother must have tried to get rid of her, or her father did not want to be weighted down with the burden of a child.

It did not matter; she had been abandoned at birth by parents that did not love her. All that she knew was that one of the councilmen decreed that since they needed a jinchuuriki to compete in the modern age of shinobi, she being an unwanted child would become their weapon.

It was once said that her eyes had been a hypnotic blue colour. Now that she was carried the Nanabi no Kabutomushi within her body, they had changing into a red-yellow-but-not-quite-orange colour.

Another thing that made her different.

Fu looked down at her clothing. She wore a white, sleeveless shirt that ended just above her stomach, revealing a mesh undershirt and then her oddly coloured skin. Below that was a pair of low ridding white pants held up by a red sash. On her feet were white sandals and on her arms where long white gloves.

She wore white because no other country wore white. Fu was part of the fourth ANBU division in Takigakure, known only as Forty-Two. They did not want to be identified as being part of their home village. It would be a cause for war with Suna if they did, and they were not ready to shift the cold war into a hot one just yet.

She looked towards her poison case, lying by the base of the tree, its red cover beside it. This was her pride and joy; the only time were she could feel truly at home was when she was turning the rotating shelves of test tubes filled with liquid death.

She could only be at peace when she watched something shrivel up and die.

"Oi! Bitch! The caption is calling a meeting!" the ring of Renji's voice carried over to were she was sitting. This man was her lieutenant, but everyone knew that the caption made a mistake promoting him. Renji himself knew it was a mistake, but that did not stop him from barking orders left-right-and-center.

Wrapping the cover back onto her case and slipping it on to her back, Fu walked towards the man smiling a smile that never reached her eyes. That was her motto, "Smile and no one will know what you are thinking."

At the moment, she wanted to disembowel him. She hated men more that she hated her hair.

Being the only girl on their all male division had taken its toll over the years. Not a day went by without them making a crack about her body. Renji was the worst; he was very blunt about how he wanted to break her.

They did not even call her by name. They called her "bitch," "slut," "freak," and "monster." Sometimes they even called her "Nanabi."

But never Fu. Never her name.

"I presume that Squads 1 and 2 failed miserably," she asked innocently, though the question was far from it, "and that Suna was able to send a team to Kochi."

Renji scowled, "Yeah. I knew it was a bad idea to work with them on this mission. Genin, green at grass. They thought that they were immortal and went off wearing clothing that screamed 'Look at us! We're from Takigakure!' Stupid fools deserved what they got."

"_It was you that requested we bring them along, idiot,"_ Fu thought harshly, "So it's just you, me, and Jiro-taicho, then."

"Along with one hundred and fifty odd freelance yakuza thugs and three Takumi-made catapults," he answered, "They take down the village, we use the place as a Base of Ops to house shinobi in for the war and make a killing off of selling the inhabitants to the Iwa slave market, and then when those thugs come asking for their payment, you do what you do best and we all come out on top."

"Hmm, sounds like fun," she hummed before she was swung around and held against Renji's body like he owned her.

"You want fun, little bitch, I'll show you fun."

Fu rolled her eyes, having seen this coming a while back. She had no idea what this man saw in her. She was thirteen, and her body was horribly underdeveloped. With no curves and no chest the only things that identified her as being female was her face and the way she walked.

It was weird; most girls her age had began to show some kind of development. But then again, she was a freak.

"Let go of me, Renji, before I make sure it's just Jiro and me leading this mission," she warned.

The man laughed, "Just what are you planning to do, little girl?"

"Nothing much," she said with a smile, "Just inject you with a poison that will cause you to rot from the inside out." She nodded her head towards the needle she had palmed, aimed right at his leg.

Renji pushed her away and delivered her a painful slap across the face.

"Freak!" he yelled. He hated to be reminded that the thing he wanted to control was not human.

Fu smiled at him as the red mark slowly disappeared. She kept smiling has she walked passed him to the caption's tent for the debriefing that would be held as the moon began to rise into the night sky.

She did not need to use the needle. All she needed was a touch to introduce a powerful poison into Renji's bloodstream. The needle had just been for show, a demonstration of power. He knew that he would be dead if she wanted him to be.

She should know better than to encourage him, but this had become a little game of hers, coming up with creative new ways to threaten him with his life.

But in the end, it did not matter. Everything she touched was doomed to die, even if she was not using her power.

Kochi and the Suna team would not stand a chance against the power of the Nanabi, the Seven Tailed Horned Beetle, and the bringer of poisons and plagues.

* * *

"_Shukaku?"_

"**What is it, kiddo?"**

"_If this…food…poisons me, will you be able to heal me?"_

"**I honestly have no idea…"**

"…_Great…"_

Gaara had taken Izumi's advice to hold the soba noodles, but there was not much other choice in great food. The udon looked safe, but then Wataru had quickly run from the mess hall looking green after he ate some. He decided to stick with the rice.

They could not mess up rice, right?

After poking it with his chopsticks a few times to make sure that it would not attack him if he tried to eat it, he tried to pick up a clump, only to discover that the sticky rice was not sticky.

He must be cursed when it came to food. And he missed Sakura's cooking.

…Sakura…

"_No!"_ Gaara thought, shaking his head to clear it of those thoughts, _"She's Naruto's wife! She's your best friend's wife! You shouldn't love her like that. You owe them that much for taking you in after what happened to Suna."_

But he could not stop. He tried - _gods, he had tried _– to stop it for five years now. It was irrational, it was stupid, and it made so little sense that it scared him witless.

Sakura had been the first person to look at him after he had transformed into his jinchuuriki form and had not been scared of him. That was a title that Naruto and his own siblings had never been able to claim.

It sent shivers down his spine and an odd smile to his face when he thought about that day.

She did not dance around the fact that he was jinchuuriki, avoiding the topic of Shukaku as if it was some grave insult. She understood that the sand spirit was just as much a part of him as his arms and legs. She tried to understand his burden, tried as hard as she could, and that made all the difference.

He loved her because she treated him no differently than anyone else but still acknowledged he was different.

Even he did not get his own reasoning.

Something slammed onto the table in front of him startling him out of his thoughts. Hibeki, eyes filled with fury, stood hunched over the table and looked directly into his eyes.

"What did you do to her?" the other boy asked in a dangerously low voice, "You did something, didn't you, you sick freak. What did you do?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Hibeki-san," Gaara said, trying once again to pick up some rice, only to have it drop, _"I really am cursed."_

"Bullshit!" Hibeki spat, "Izumi was mumbling when I went up to check up on her. She stutters but she never mumbles. You saw her before I did, so what did you do to her?!"

"I think you're over reacting," he sighed, "I didn't do anything to Izumi-san except talk to her as she came up to relieve me of my watch duty. I asked her why she wanted to become a medic and she told me to watch out for the soba noodles. I didn't touch her."

The black-eyed red head clamped his jaw shut before leaning in closer until Gaara could do nothing but look into his eyes, "I don't care if you can kill me with a single grain of sand, if you ever get any ideas about messing with Izumi, I will hunt you down."

"_The nerve of this kid,"_ Gaara thought angrily, _"I tell him I didn't do anything, Izumi doesn't show any signs of being attacked, and yet he threatens to kill me."_

"**You aren't his Kazekage,"** Shukaku's voice sounded in his mind, **"And to him you aren't eighteen years his elder. You're twelve years old just like him and he's only heard the stories of who you were from his family. The Tanakas probably taught him from the cradle to hate your guts."**

"_Not helping, Shukaku."_

"**I'm not trying to help you, just be your voice of reason cause you don't have one of your own."**

Gaara rose from the bench he was sitting on. Hibeki backed up slightly in order to avoid knocking noses with him. The Shukaku jinchuuriki was just an inch and a half shorter than the Tanaka, but he still commanded respect.

"I do not toy with people's emotions, Tanaka Hibeki. I am not that kind of a man," his voice was deep and powerful, the voice of a Kazekage, "Do not accuse me of things I am not."

"Then what kind of man are you?" Hibeki asked a sneer on his face.

Gaara paused before answering, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

The Tanaka opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by another voice, "What is going on here?"

Mori Takama stood beside her student, her hands on her hips, "Hibeki, I told you not to pick fights with people. Especially ones that you can't win." The black-eyed boy started to say that he knew what he was doing, but was once again cut off, "No you don't."

Then Takama turned to him and leaned on to table, giving him a really good view of what was down her flank jacket, "Gaara-sama, my student doesn't know when to shut up. Please forgive him."

"_Oh. My. God. Are those real – no! Bad Gaara, down boy! Eyes on the face! Eyes on the face!"_

"Yah…sure." Apparently big boobs turned him into a monosyllabic moron.

"Alright!" Takama bounced up –_ Eyes. On. The. Face._ – and dragged Hibeki away, muttering to him the entire time "Next time you get in over your head I am not going to get you out of it again."

She then sat down next to a stunned Kankuro and held out her hand. Eyes still on him, Gaara's brother counted out some bills. Using his lip reading talents, Gaara saw his brother say, "Well, I'll be damned…he does have hormones."

Gaara's jaw dropped. _"They were betting on me! That's…that's not fair! And you,"_ he directed his thoughts toward the bijuu inside his mind, _"Stop laughing! It's not funny!"_

"**Are you kidding me? This is most fun I've had since Naruto convinced you to sing that time at the karaoke bar!"**

The red head placed his head in his hands before looking skyward, _"I know that I've done some horrible things in the past, but I've got to ask…_

"_Why me?"_

* * *

Baki was tired. It was nearly midnight and his watch on the tower would begin in almost half an hour. Today after unpacking their gear into the barracks and convincing Hikari that Gaara really did not need to sleep, Taro had introduced him to the men that guarded the walls. It brought back one of the lessons his own jonin sensei had taught him.

"One day," the man had said, "You will have to lead peasants who will not know a katana from a rock into battle. But you will still have to lead them, because you cannot fight an army by yourself."

His sensei had been a smart man. And Baki wished he had paid attention to the rest of the lecture. It would really have helped him now.

Sitting in the barracks on his bed, he gazed over a map of the area. There was a thick grove of trees just to the east of the village. If there was any enemy in the vicinity, they would be hiding there. Maybe he would send Temari and Kankuro there tomorrow to check it out, or make Gaara use his Third Eye technique to spy from a safe distance away.

Temari was sleeping in the bed in front of him, clutching her pillow like a security blanket. She acted so strong and brave in front of people, but in reality, she was just a fragile little girl looking for someone to love her.

Baki's heart went out to the children of the Kazekage. The man was no real father, having judged Temari to be weak for her gender, Kankuro stupid his protectiveness, and Gaara a failure for existing.

Baki felt more like a father to the three of them then their actual one, despite how doubtable the identity of Gaara's biological father remained.

He pulled the covers up around the girl, and she murmured something that sounded like, "Kaa-san."

Karura.

He remembered that woman well. A goddess on earth, they called her. The most beautiful woman to ever walk the desert sands. Men were falling at her feet for a chance to hold her, to love her. And she would haul up, tell them she was only interested in them as a friend, and then buy them something in a local tea shop before sending them on their way.

Baki would know. He had been one of those men.

Her marriage was an arranged one. The Kazekage had been happy at the time, having snagged the most desired woman in the village for his wife. Karura, though, hated to be forced into something. When the idea had been presented before her, it was the first time that anyone had seen her get angry.

She loved her children: Temari, Kankuro, and even little unborn Gaara. Especially Gaara, because he was proof that she had rebelled against her controlling husband. She loved him right until her third trimester when the Shukaku was implanted into her second son and drove her mad.

Baki had met the man who was supposedly Gaara's real father. He was a good person, and a good friend of Karura. He was the shoulder she would lean on when things got too much, the person she would count on in times of trouble.

But they were like brother and sister, and loved each other as such. The idea that anything more would occur between them was unheard of.

Yashamaru was the one that conformed her pregnancy. Baki had been there at the time, and was in on the secret. They had asked her over and over if it was the Kazekage's, but she kept saying no because she had been sleeping on the couch for three months.

He had taken the bed. He always took the bed.

It was not Gaara's fault that he existed, but the Kazekage treated him like it was. Baki had suspected that one of the many reasons that the Yondiame had for turning him into a jinchuuriki was because he was not his child.

The man was selfish, greedy, and controlling, but he was also powerful. Baki could not defeat him, and he was not about to try.

The Kazekage had a tendency to kill the people he sparred with accidentally after a while.

Baki wished he could take the three children away and hide them in his apartment. He wished he could be there more for them, as he had promised their mother he would.

He wished he could be what they really needed him to be: a father.

And then the ceiling exploded.

Baki leaped onto Temari's bed, grapping her and then rolling off it onto the other side.

"Baki?" she cried, wiry hair sticking out at odd angles, "What's going on?"

"We're under attack," one of the guards entered the building to inform him, "Somehow they got onto the east wall. And they got a catapult up here! How did they get a catapult up here?"

Men, women, and children started to scream and surge towards the exit. Hikari tried to calm them down, but then two men can in, armed with curved broadswords and knives. They cut through the guard like he was not even there.

"Lot's a fine wenches here!" one observed.

"They'll make a killin' off a them," the other yelled, "Maybe they'll let us have a few before they get sold."

Baki caught Temari's eye as she grabbed for her fan. _Cover me_ he hand signalled before leaping into at their attackers.

"_I just hope that the others will be okay."_

**I do believe that I have just introduced the main villian for this arc. Ladies and Gents, after making two camio appearences in Save You, I give to you the character of Fu!**

**She's a sarcastic little thing isn't she?**

**So Gaara's no longer angsting, Forty Two has launched their attack, Baki is getting flashbacks, and Takama has finally proved to Kankuro that even his little brother is capable of going through puberty.**

**For a complete explaination of what Forty Two is exactly, go and read the newest chapter of Save You. It will clear a few things up.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**

* * *


End file.
